Bella the Babysitter
by Pandora's Box Is Heavy
Summary: Edward never thought he'd be the sole caregiver to his godson Lucas until disaster struck leaving the baby orphaned. Bella's irresponsible and perpetually unemployed until her friend introduces the two. Will it be a success or disaster? NOW COMPLETE
1. Perpetually Unemployed Woman

**Disclaimer: Own it, I do not :)**

**Chapter One**

"I'm really sorry to do this to you Bella. I mean we've been friends for so long and I hate to put you in a bind, but it's completely out of my control." Mike sighed dramatically, his face pinched as if he were about to bawl.

"It's cool Mikey, I'm no virgin to the whole getting fired thing." I waved him off and tossed my almost brand new bright orange Newton's Outfitter issued smock onto the conveyer belt. "Thanks for giving me a chance dude."

I opened the cabinet under the cash register to grab my coat and purse assuring that the super tight lime green polo that was my uniform didn't ride up. Didn't want Mikey to get a woody. As soon as I grabbed my shit, I stood up and turned to make a silent exit but was stopped by a mass of sweaty smelly flesh.

"Excuse me Mikey I've gotta hit the pavement. Bills need to get paid and all that." I tried to shift around him but he kept moving to stop me.

"Wait. I wanted to talk to you." his face was clammy and greasy looking.

_Ah shit. Here it comes._

"Make it quick." I sighed taking advantage of the complimentary mint candies.

_Who the fuck put those two together? Going camping… don't forget your god damn mints._

In my three days as a Newton Outfitters employee I had scrubbed at least twenty of those little red candies off of the forty year old tile floor after some bitch tried to shut her screaming and crying brat up with a free treat. Kids and cinnamon don't mix, resulting in the sticky sugar stuck to the disgusting floor waiting for yours truly to bring a paint scraper and spray cleaner over and fight it off the floor.

I allowed Mike enough time for me to snatch a handful of candies and stash them in my bag before I snapped.

"I don't have all day Mikey." I choked on my giggle as Mike jumped at least a foot in the air, his greasy hair flopping into his eyes.

"Yeah, erm. Well when I asked you out the other day you told me that you didn't date your superiors so I was wondering now that your no longer a Newton Outfitter's employee if you." he cleared his throat nervously. "If you wanted to maybe go out sometime? Dinner? A movie? Tonight?"

I had known Michael Newton since I was twelve years old and new to town, angry and orphaned by my father after he was killed on duty at his pitiful security job at a distribution center, my mother long dead, her battle with cancer having taken her from us when I was three. My grandmother on my mother's side welcomed me with open arms in the ridiculously small town of Forks, Washington. Halfway through my first day Mike Newton's shaggy golden retriever ass latched onto me and to this day remains creepy and stalker-like.

"You know Mike." I sighed patting his moist arm. "As much as I would love to, it seems a little inappropriate. You did just fire me. That's unethical."

With that I turned and grabbed my bag, another handful of the free cinnamon candies and I was out like a trout. Speaking of which Mikey was gaping, resembling one of our fishy friends in almost every way.

Your probably thinking that I'm about to go sit in my car and have a meltdown seeing as I just lost my job. As soon as I sat in the worn down seats of my Isuzu pup it would hit me that I had to go home and inform my two roommates that I wasn't going to be able to pay rent this month and that they were going to have to front me for the fifth month this year.

Instead, I walked around my truck running my hand over the hand painted stars along the hood and driver's side before hopping in and slamming the door. I pressed the button that my mechanic friend rigged after I had forgotten where my keys were for the billionth time since I had gotten my driver's license. That little button would start the engine no questions asked. Yes I was just asking for someone to come still my piece of shit car but I was a strong believer in tempting fate.

I started my truck and headed across town back to the apartment I shared with my bitches, climbing up the stairs to the third floor and grabbing the key from its hiding spot behind the fire extinguisher in the hallway by the door. Opening the door and tossing the key back into its spot, I swiftly entered the apartment in an attempt to ninja roll all the way to my bedroom without anyone spotting me.

"Freeze!" Emmett's booming voice yelled making me to scream and turn around in an effort to pummel him.

"You stupid fuck. You know I hate that." I exclaimed hitting him with my handbag.

"Well, someone got off work early." he sang ignoring my fetal attempts at hurting him.

"Yeah, about that." I slipped my shoes off and leaned against the wall.

"You got fired eh." he stated sitting on the floor across from me. "What's this? Job number five hundred and thirty four since graduation?"

"Nah, more like thirty seven. And we graduated three years ago, it isn't that bad." I shrugged. "I'm hungry you want sticky rice?"

"Fuck yeah I do." Emmett clapped his hands like a toddler and jumped to his feet dragging me to the kitchen. "Rose should be home in a little while for lunch so if you hurry, I can eat twice."

Emmett and Rose were my roommates. We met in Home Economics freshmen year, I actually helped Emmett extinguish the fire Rose set trying to bake muffins in a plastic bowl and the rest is history. Senior year when my Gran-Marie died, the state gave up seeing as I was turning eighteen in less than a month and I was left Bella Swan, no family and only two best friends. As soon as we graduated we all moved in together, Rose and I share a large bedroom while Emmett keeps his creepy dark cave of boy-ness down the hall.

It was comfortable living with them despite the fact that they were both attracted to one another, but were too chicken to do anything about it. I was victim too many nights of watching the two of them skirt around each other and once had the pleasure to watch Emmett hide his boner when Rose was 'accidentally' locked out of the bathroom on her way to the shower in a small terry cloth towel. I might or might not have had anything to do with that little 'accident.'

I made Emmett and I some food opting to take my plate to my and Rose's bedroom in an effort to hide away from Rose's wrath once she found out I was out of a job again. Emmett threatened to tell her as soon as she walked into the house, and I countered with a threat to inform her that Emmett was actually the one that stole her undergarments from the laundry mat downstairs in an act of complete creepiness. I would be safe until later tonight when she got home from work.

My lack of stability career wise isn't because I'm lazy. I just haven't found the right kind of job. Rose and Emmett both joke that I was waiting for the perfect job to fall into my lap and that I have unrealistic intentions because I refuse to do anything to better my chances at finding said job.

I've been a funeral home director, a waiter, a dog walker and a lawn mower yet still haven't found my niche. I've never quit a job because that's just tacky. I have been fired for just about everything.

**_George's hotdog stand:_**

"_Isabella you have to smile." Pat the owner said, his face red with fury._

"_I'll smile when I can take this godforsaken hotdog hat off. I can feel my brain sweating."_

"_You're fired."_

**_Ponds Funeral Home:_**

"_It is completely unacceptable to be laughing during a funeral." Mr. Ponds snapped._

"_No, you don't understand I got a really funny text message and I didn't realize everyone was exiting the ceremony." I had tried to explain._

"_I'm sorry Miss. Swan. You're fired."_

**_Bath and Body works:_**

"_You don't understand, that lady has been in here at least four times today to get a free sample. It's fraud." I said calmly._

"_The customer is always right. Clock out, we'll mail you your check."_

"_What?"_

"_You're fired."_

**_Hollister:_**

"_Swan it is against company policy to fraternize with fellow employees. You drew the line while making out with the shirtless model in the dressing room. We're going to have to let you go."_

"_What about Sam? Does he get fired? He's just as guilty as I am."_

"_That's not what we heard. You're fired."_

I've been fired for sitting down instead of standing up, to hold signs on the side of the road, fired for trying to sneak an M&M at a sweet shop I worked at for a day and even fired for starting my period and needing to run home and change my pants. You name it; I've possibly been fired for it. I found jobs just as quickly, I even got fired from two jobs in one day. They just weren't it for me.

Shoveling down my lunch I checked Craigslist on my ancient computer for available jobs. Trying to weed out the stupid shit and weirdo job offers like Doms looking for a sub or vice versa until I found something that looked promising. Climbing over my bed I grabbed the phone and dialed the number.

"_Thank you for calling Greg's Golf Course, if you're calling about the available position as ball retriever please press one."_

"Will do." I said pressing one.

"_We here at Greg's Golf Course are equal opportunity employers, we regret to inform you that the job has already been filled but if you would like to place an application we keep them on file for six months. Thank you. Goodbye."_ the robotic voice cheered before I was rendered deaf by the dial tone.

"Well shit." I said aloud.

I should have known that it wouldn't have been that easy. I heard the front door open and close meaning that Rose was home for her lunch hour and that I had to be extremely quiet. I rolled back onto my bed and burrowed into the covers to spend the hour being completely immobile until she left. Emmett had lent me his Nintendo DS so I played Super Mario until my thumbs were killing me and then counted the small dots on the ceiling until someone knocked on the door.

"Isabella Marie Swan if you don't get off your ass and find a job right now I swear I'm going to kick your skinny ass into next week." Rose said throwing the door open and tossing her Macbook onto my bed. "You better have something by the time I get home or heads are gonna roll got it?"

"Rose, I've already looked, there's nothing-"

"Shut your fucking mouth. You better pull some form of a miracle by the time I get home or you're going to sleep on the couch. I'm tired of having to share a room with someone that does nothing to contribute to this household."

Her words were lethal but nothing I haven't heard before so I just rolled my eyes and grabbed her lap top.

"Yes ma'am. I'll sleep on the couch tonight and pull a miracle out of my ass before you get home from work."

"That's right bitch." she smiled before slamming the bedroom door shut cursing the entire way out the front door.

As soon as the door slammed, the bedroom door opened revealing Emmett's huge ass with his hand over his eyes.

"I just wanted to let you know that I didn't tell her. She saw your shoes in the hallway and when I tried to distract her, she ignored me." he said before peeking through his fingers.

"Who cares? Get over here and help me perform a miracle." I sighed.

For two hours Emmett and I placed applications into any place we could think of within thirty minutes of the apartment. After his hand started cramping and he had to stop for a break, we were watching TV when he turned to me.

"What are you willing to do for money Bella?"

"Anything legal." I shrugged.

"Why don't you just put an ad on Craigslist for that." without waiting he jumped up and ran for the computer while I sat there trying to mull over it.

"Fine. You can put the ad up but you're going to have to weed through the freaks. There's no fucking way I'm doing anything creepy."

"Deal."

_What the fuck did I get myself into?_

**l**

**l**

**l**

**V**


	2. Introducing Daddyward

**Disclaimer: Own it, I do not :)**

**Chapter Two**

**Edward Cullen POV**

"This has to be some kind of mistake." I stood up in the small room and began to gather my things.

"I was present when Mr. and Mrs. Stewart signed their wills, Mr. Cullen. They were adamant as to who they were leaving their most prized possessions to." Mr. Jenks said as he wiped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. "They left you a letter as well. I believe they knew you would be hesitant."

I reached over the mahogany table and snatched the envelope from his hand ripping it open immediately. The slanted curvy doctor's handwriting caused my stomach to twist painfully and tears to pool in my eyes.

_Ed-o…_

_If you're reading this it probably means that James and I have kicked the bucket. You're probably sitting in a board room with smelly Mr. Jenks, the most trustworthy lawyer we could find in this crappy town. I want you to keep your cool in this situation Ed because we didn't hesitate once when Jenks asked us to list the benefactors, if something should happen to the two of us._

_You're my best friend and according to James you've grown on him as well throughout all of the years as well._

_If anyone deserved to live a little easier beneficiating from our hard work, it's you Ed. Please don't be sad because I will always be here for you and no I am not going to haunt you like I threatened many times in our youth._

_The house, money and everything is yours Edward because we believe you will keep a clear head and be able to do a lot of good with it. Your probably pissed off and too full of pride to accept this somewhat large token of our appreciation, but we love you so much and trust that you won't put all of our hard work to vain._

_As for Lucas, I bet you don't remember the day he was born as clearly as I do. As I'm writing this letter to you, something I haven't really done in quite some time, he is crawling around the house or scooting like a soldier really, without his diaper on and believe it or not, he isn't drunk like some people that like to streak when inebriated. He's going to be one in a few short months and I wish they had a freeze machine that would just keep him the little tiny bugger that he is forever. Then again diapers are a pain in the ass and seeing as your reading this letter, it means I'm gone so you would be forever stuck with an infant, I take that back. And before you think I had a freaky ass premonition about my death or something, I decided to visit smelly Jenks every year on my wedding anniversary and rewrite you a letter. Here's to hoping you won't get this one._

_Anyways, back to the serious information I am trying to pass down to you and believe me it's hard. To try to write down everything you want someone to know before you die. It's fucking hard, but I'm going to try and get everything I need out._

_The day that James and I found out about Lucas, we automatically knew who would be granted godfather-ness. You laughed it off when James informed you of your new title just as you always do when something serious happens, but not once did you make us question our choice._

_If you're reading this and we are both gone... Dead... What the hell do I say? Passed on? Yes if we have both passed on, Lucas is probably in my mother's care for the moment and you're probably questioning the reason behind us choosing you and not her. The answer is simple, my mother is older, if Lucas can't have James and I in his life, I would want him to be close to someone that isn't going to let him down or leave him unexpectedly, someone like you. I can't bear the idea of him having to go through the loss of another family member acting as his guardian in a few years. Also have you met my mother? She's bat shit crazy._

_We decided to leave everything in your name, for you to distribute to Lucas when you see fit. As for the house, the general idea was for him to be somewhere where he could be comfortable, but we would understand if it was too painful for you to live there. Your bachelor pad isn't exactly suitable for the care of an infant so please be smart in making that decision._

_Lucas is to be raised as your son, Edward. And before you crumble up this note I want to explain. James grew up in foster care not knowing his birth parents until he aged out of the system as you well know. There's no reason for Lucas to know that we were his birth parents because we are gone. I know he loves us and that's all that matters. It pains my heart to think that he would have to carry the loss. Tell him about us as the fuckawsome aunt and uncle that moved to Cabo due to witness protection or some shit._

_So Daddy-ward (James' idea, not mine). I think that's it. Jenks can probably answer any other questions you might have so now I get to be all kinds of sentimental._

_I can't believe I'm writing my death note, it's fucking creepy to be truthful. This is actually the second one I've written to you but that was before Lucas was conceived._

_You're my best friend Ed. I'll always remember meeting you at the playground. Granted we were only two at the time but if memory recalls I dumped sand on your head after you lifted my dress to check out my pampers. Please take care of yourself, don't get depressed over me not being here to bother you at all hours of the night. Don't freak out on Saturday night when you look over at your poker table and realize that James isn't coming over because you definitely have it better sweets._

_Every time you're feeling down in the dumps, I want you to look at my baby boy and focus on the fact that you're here with him and that he needs you._

_No matter how hard you want to, don't give into his every need and want. He's a cutie and I have a feeling he's gonna be a heartbreaker as he grows older, but children need rules so no letting him drink illegally or smoke pot._

_And for Christ's sake virgin boy, please find a woman._

_I would hate to have my son grow to believe that his dad produced and carried him all on his own. She's out there Ed, I have a feeling you'll find her I just can't tell when. Alice says that it will be fairly soon, sooner than we think, but we can't be too sure. Don't allow Lucas to watch a revolving door of sluts coming through. He needs stability._

_You're going to need help as well Sweets. Alice and your mother are going to offer help, but quite frankly I don't want the baby growing up depending on coffee and caffeine like your sister- in-law and your mother has a life in the charities she is a part of._

_I hate to say this but find a live in nanny. Someone with experience that can teach you._

_Raising a child is sort of trial by error. You're going to make mistakes and sometimes he's going to pull the same shit we used to with our parents. 'I hate you' will be said, but I want you to smile and think of me when you're ready to pull your hair out._

_Do background checks on the potential caregivers for Lucas and I don't think I have to ask that you show him more love than possible. You already do such a great job with him. I know you won't let us down._

_I love you Ed more than you can imagine. You were the best friend a girl can ask for and the best sudo-brother ever. Take care of my baby, like I said treat him as if he were your own, please._

_Love Vicky_

_P.S. Get your hand out of your hair... Deep breaths… you'll be fine._

_P.S.S. What the fuck are you doing still reading this, go save your godson from the evil clutches of my crazy mother._

Smiling albeit through the ridiculous amount of tears that were pouring down my face, I handed the note back to Jenks so that he could put it back into the file and sat down. Laurel, Vicky's mother sat on the opposite side of the table smiling at me warmly as she dabbed her eyes.

"Please don't take him completely away from me Edward. He's all I have left."

"I wouldn't dream about it, Laurel." I leaned back. "I do have a favor though."

"Anything." she sniffed.

"Well I need to take care of a few things before I take this on so would you mind keeping him tonight and the better part of tomorrow?" I asked, mentally making a list of all of the shit I had to do.

"Of course. Take your time dear."

"I'll come by to see him tonight though. I'm going to call my brother and his wife and ask them to help me pack up my apartment." I turned to Jenks. "I plan to raise Lucas in his original home. I'll settle my apartment and move into the Stewart estate."

"Are you sure Mr. Cullen? You have time to think about things."

"I'm positive. He needs stability."

We finished signing away all of the papers and I left the lawyers office rushing across town and straight to my apartment. I ran up the stairs ignoring the doorman and starting tossing all of my clothes into duffle bags.

Vicky's words from her note ran through my mind over and over again as I emptied my dresser drawers into a suitcase. How were she and James supposed to know that a week after they signed their wills, that they would be gone?

After being married for five years all of their hard work finally paid off and they could afford a honeymoon to Miami beach. We had had dinner the night before they left joking about them going down there and never wanting to leave the sunshine state. I had even talked to them right before they went out to the beach not knowing that, that was the last time I would ever hear their voices.

I couldn't even remember if I told Vicky and James that I loved them.

You would think that I would remember something like that, the entire conversation I had with my best friends the day both of them died. Hell I couldn't even remember what I did that day or the night that I got the call from Laurel. All I remember was calling my brother to come pick me up and take me to see Lucas.

As soon as I walked into the house, he started babbling away in his play-pin and holding his arms out to me to be held. And I did. I held him and cried for the loss he suffered at a too young age. The loss of two remarkable people he would never know and was too young to ever remember.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a timid knock on the door.

"Edward." my brother's calming voice called through the wood.

"Yeah, it's open." I yelled back.

The door opened and he looked at the chaos that was once my house.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm moving into the Stewart estate."

"They left you a fucking house?" Jasper's eyes went wide.

"They left me everything." I stood up and tossed a few stray socks into an open suitcase.

"You're going to live in that big ass house all alone? I know you miss them Edward, but you can't do this to yourself." Jasper sat down next to an overstuffed duffle bag and started to wrestle the zipper shut.

"I'm not going to be alone."

"You alright man? Your kind of weirding me out with the cryptic short sentences."

"I'm not going to be living there alone. I am now the legal guardian of Lucas Edward Stewart, soon to be Cullen." I winced at the end of my sentence.

Another surprise from Vicky's twisted mind. Jenks was currently filing the paper work for me to legally adopt Lucas thoroughly turning him into a Cullen. He was going to be a Cullen before his first birthday.

"You mean..." Jasper trailed off.

"Yep, I'm gonna be a dad."

"Well shit Ed."

"My thought's exactly."


	3. The hunt for a nanny begins

**Disclaimer: Still have no ownership over the characters.. except for batshit crazy Laurel and Lucas ;)**

**Glad to see people are liking this story **

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Three **

**Edward Cullen POV **

It had taken five days in total to make my best friend's home somewhat into my own. I still felt like a guest every time I sat a cup on the coffee table or took off my shoes by the front door, but we were getting there. Slowly but surely.

Like I had promised I picked up Lucas the day after the will was read and brought him back to the house. It broke my heart that he showed no signs of what was going on. He was still the same old babbling baby happy to play with his fingers and toes for hours. He wouldn't remember the wonderful people that his parents were and even though Vicky sort of wanted it that way, I knew I couldn't allow him to grow up not knowing about her and James.

We spent every waking moment together and sometimes when we slept. I had requested that my family give me some time to get used to fatherhood. They made an unneeded list of emergency numbers even though I already had them and tacked them in the kitchen just in case I needed to get a hold of my mother at her hair salon or my sister in law at her favorite boutique.

I had babysat Lucas for a couple of hours every now and then when James and Vicky needed a break. Nothing could prepare me for the three a.m. feedings and the seven o'clock wake up calls by a gassy infant. The first time he woke up before the sun came up screaming his head off, his face beat red I freaked out and called my mother as I hurried to get us ready for a drive to the local hospital. Luckily she was able to calm me down before I did anything drastic and inform me of the predicament.

How the hell was I supposed to know that adding powdered jello mix and warm water would help with that?

It took us four days to get a routine of sorts situated. I was tired and every so often would get a little frustrated but then I would remember Vicky's words. As a man I'll admit that the first couple of times that Lucas was completely inconsolable I broke down crying right alongside him. Eventually I learned to distinguish a cry for attention from a hungry sob.

After a couple of days I had started taking Lucas on walks down to the local playground and the shopping centers just to get us out of the gloom of the house.

Even though he had no idea what was going on I could tell that he enjoyed the sunshine, even if it was overcast half the time. We ventured inside each of the small shops on the street one by one and today we just so happened to enter a video game store that had been here since I was a kid. I somehow managed to maneuver the stroller through the door while holding it open awkwardly with no help from the guy sitting on his ass behind the counter.

"Welcome to Moe's. Everything in the bin is half the original sticker price today." the huge dude behind the counter said pointing to the large plastic tub in the middle of the store. He turned toward me when I didn't respond, his eyes lit up when he took in the stroller. "Aw, a baby."

Immediately the guardian in me recoiled from the creepy dude and his boy-like dimples. He hopped over the counter and trotted over to where I stood and peered over the hood of the stroller.

"Aw, it's a ginger baby." he cooed before looking up. "You know, children of the corn? South Park? No. Well he's a looker."

"Erm, thanks?" I stammered. "We were just looking around."

"Oh, well let me show you around." he strode over towards the clearance bin and straight back to the consoles. "We just got a Nintendo 64 in mint condition that I found on eBay, comes with a crap ton of games."

"I'm not looking to buy any games, like I said, we're just looking around." I looked inside the locked glass cabinet. "I've got too much on my plate at the moment to even think about video games."

"Oh, I know that look. Your woman won't let you?"

"I don't have a woman." I said just as Lucas started to whimper before he quieted down.

"Oh. OH. You're gay?" the dude said before taking a step back. "That's cool. Gay people are adopting babies all the time now."

"What? NO. I'm not gay." I snapped. "Jesus. This is my godson. Erm son?"

"Oh, Jesus. Okay so I only freaked out for a second. It's cool. My name's Emmett."

"Edward. This is Lucas." I flipped the sun shield up so that I could see Lucas better and found him quietly sucking on his hand.

"Hi Lucas." Emmett said giving Lucas a gentle fist bump. Lucas immediately took his hand out of his mouth and latched onto Emmett's giant paw.

I was surprised when Emmett pulled away giving a girlish squeal as he shook his hand.

"I'm cool I'm cool." he assured himself wiping his wet hand on his pants as a stunned Lucas started to bawl.

"You get used to it." I unclipped the baby and rocked him in my arms to calm him down.

"Well I'm about to close shop for the day. I'd stay open but your not here to buy anything so there's really no point. My roommates are cooking dinner tonight and if I'm late, they will flip shit." he winced and gave an apologetic look towards Lucas. "Sorry."

"It's alright. I'd better get him home anyways. His shirt's wet with drool and it gets pretty chilly out here."

"Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about." Emmett said flipping the sign on the front door. "Come by when your back out this way, we're usually pretty dead during the week so having someone to talk to is pretty awesome."

"Alright, it was good meeting you Emmett."

"You too Edward." he shook my hand before awkwardly patting Lucas's shoulder. "You too little man."

I put Luke back in the stroller and walked us to the local deli to grab dinner before heading straight home. Once we got home, I fed Lucas his dinner bottle and ate quickly before getting him ready for bed. My mother had taught me how to bathe him in the kitchen sink until I was comfortable to have him in the bathtub.

Instead of reading to Lucas at night I had started sitting with Lucas in my bedroom and watching home videos that Vicky and I had made when we were younger. Tonight's entailed the three of us playing in a fort made entirely of wood we had stolen from a local construction site at night. We ended up getting fined for it when they caught us but it was worth it.

Lucas could care less about the movie playing and after a couple of days I found that I focused more attention to him than I did the TV screen. That was Vicky's intentions anyways but it still made me feel guilty later when I realized.

I had always found Lucas extremely cool but living with him was completely different. Everything he did surprised me and I found myself talking back to his random baby babble as he had his tummy time.

I put him to sleep in the crib at the foot of my bed keeping him close for the time being was important to me. I fell asleep quickly only to be woken up a few hours later by Lucas. I fed him his bottle and enjoyed some late night television before falling back to sleep.

Luckily Lucas slept in a little later the next morning. I was able to get showered and dressed before he woke up and my mother came over a few hours later to help me start on my search for a nanny for Luke.

"Hi sweetie. How are my boys today?" my mother asked as she sat across from us at the kitchen table. I had already set up my laptop and a pad of paper.

"We're good. Luke decided to sleep in a little today so I got to enjoy a shower." I sighed looking down at Lucas as he played with a rattle, smacking himself in the face with it and giggling. I grabbed his hand before he could hurt himself and shook it earning a gummy smile. "Goober."

"You're such a natural with him." my mom smiled at the two of us. "I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks." I said bashfully.

"I'm serious Edward. When your brother called to tell me what was going on, I thought you were going to ask to move back in with your father and I so that we could help you out. But here you are, making your father and I proud."

"I'm just trying to make Vicky and James proud." I said sadly. "They left him in my care and I can't let the two of them down. I'll die before I do that. Lucas is my life now and I have every intention of making a comfortable home life for him, here where his parents intended for him to grow up."

My mother started sniffling standing up and walking around the table to pull me into a hug. After a few minutes she was able to calm herself down and find her seat.

"I figured we could check with the local nanny agencies and other things online that we can find. I know you need to get some writing time in and until we find a proper caregiver, I'll come by every other day to take him for a few hours so you can get some work done." she said pulling out her laptop.

"Mom you don't have to do that. Lucas is my responsibility. I am hoping that we can find a nanny but until then I can comfortably take some time off and get my bearings back."

"Fine, if we can't find one in two weeks time, I'll start coming over to help out. Deal?"

"Deal." I smiled before cradling Lucas on my legs and opening my laptop.

Four hours later we had a total of twenty four interviews scheduled for the following day.

My mother left right before I set Lucas up in his bouncer on the kitchen counter so I could cook myself some dinner and wash some of his bottles. I had read that you should boil their nipples and spent some time making a few bottles of formula so that I wouldn't have to stop in the middle of the interviews to do the whole measuring of water and powder formula dance. I used to watch Vicky make a bottle in less than a minute while driving down the road and it took me almost four minutes to measure everything and shake the bottle while standing in the kitchen.

The following day was full of interviewing different potential nannies and after eight hours of talking nonstop, watching women fawn over the pictures that they saw of Lucas in the sitting area. Alice was watching him upstairs in his nursery every now and then I could hear her flit down the stairs, baby in arms to the kitchen to get something before quietly heading back upstairs.

Eight hours, and twenty four interviews later we were at a dead end. A majority of the nannies that we found that held the potential as a great caregiver for Lucas refused to be live-in. That was sort a necessity in finding a nanny seeing as I was a freelance writer. Sometimes I could hole up for hours in my office writing to no end where as other times I went a week or two without writing a word.

I sold my work to some local and some famous magazines, newspapers and websites so that also called for me to go out of town for meetings every now and then. The few nannies that were able the be live-in refused to do traveling.

I had taken five doses of Ibuprofen and half a bottle of Tums. My head was pounding and I had heartburn, so my mother offered to take Lucas home with her for the night to give me a break.

I tried to refuse but Alice had already taken upon herself to pack a bag for Luke and get him situated in my mother's car.

I ended up at my parent's house, sleeping in my old bedroom that was now converted into a fancy sewing room for my mother, it had a tiny little daybed but I slept comfortably with Lucas in his playpen right beside me.

I was growing into the whole fatherhood thing. Slowly but surely and all I wanted to do was make Vicky and James proud.

**I promise they are going to meet soon. Plans to go visit the monster in law were post poned due to work... I'm so sad about this *winks* I feel I will never get to see the evil woman that thinks I've corrupted her 24 year old son lol.**

**You know how it is. Reviewers get sneak peaks ;)**

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	4. Emmett Lends a Helping Hand

**Disclaimer: I still have no ownership.. **

***Lifts up eyemask and winces at the little light that the blackout shades let in* Ow... *whispers gently* Happy New Year! I wanted to give everyone a present so instead of a sneak peak here is a update. I don't know if you noticed but I also changed my penname.. I needed something more distinguished sooo yeah. Hope you like it.. Different name same crazy wacko ;)**

**Bella The Babysitter**

**Chapter four**

**Bella Swan POV**

Searching for a job in such a small town wasn't a very easy task, especially when I had been hired and fired by the majority. Emmett refused to try to get me a job at the joke of a game store he worked at just inside of Forks and Rose had already tried to get me on as a receptionist at the doctor's office she nursed at. I lasted a grand total of three days until I pissed off the head receptionist by alphabetizing the patient files from A to Z instead of the bullshit they called an organization plan.

I had placed a few applications during the day around Emmett's game store but nothing looked very promising seeing as it was the middle of the summer and all the teenagers had already soaked up the minimum wage employment.

I had pretty much forgotten about the ad that Emmett placed on Craigslist until he busted in my room one afternoon after dinner to show me the many offers I was given. There was a grand total of four replies, three pictures of men with their wangs hanging out and the last one was a very kinky couple that wanted me to walk into their home and take on the role of the wife including going out on the town all while the wife acted as a family friend tagging along. Let's just say no one got a reply back on the Craigslist front and I bribed Emmett with chocolate cranberry muffins to take the ad down.

I had even had the wonderful honor of falling victim of an online agency. Luckily Rose came home right before I could send in my banking information for direct depositing my wages. She first slapped me on the back of the head and then confiscated my computer so now I was only able to place applications via pen and paper or under the careful watch of my roommates.

I felt like a preteen with the way they treated me lately and finally had to put my foot down when I was handed a ten dollar bill from each of them after I did the dishes one morning. I resulted to acting like an immature preteen as I flung the money in the dishwater and stomped to Rose's and my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Four days of silent treatment and refusing to eat resulted in something magical.

Day four I found myself sitting in the middle of the living room while my internet chaperones sat awkwardly on the small couch, Emmett rescued from a thrift store. I couldn't focus on my elaborate resume because my eyes were focused on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle dumb ass's awkward I-want-to-touch-but-I'm-too-chicken-shit-to-do-so dance. Emmett's hand would get tired of being all tight and balled up against his thigh so he would flex and accidentally brush against Rose's leg as she flipped through a magazine she wasn't even paying attention too. Rose would tense up and pull away quickly as if it burned and the entire cycle would repeat itself.

Six times, touching, tensing, shifting, flipping. Lather, rinse, mother fucking repeat until SNAP.

I threw the pen I was using to make notes in my Resume Writing for Dummies right at the wall above their heads. Rose was caught by surprise as Emmett grabbed her in an effort to shield her from the flying projectile. They did this whole slow motion gaze into each other's eyes for a total of thirteen seconds before I stood up.

"Finally you fucking pussies." I screamed, they turned to me slowly before catching each other's eyes once again and went back to ignoring anything that wasn't the other person. "You two have been skirting around each other for fucking years. I hope you're happy together you stupid fuck heads."

I grabbed my computer off the coffee table and headed down the hallway just before the door to the bedroom shut I heard the distinct sounds of lips smacking.

_Gross._

A week later I was enjoying a nice cup of tea in the kitchen before bed sulking in my lack of job-ness when Rose came in and sighed as she leaned against the sink.

"Hi Bells."

"Hi Rose. Want some?" I gestured towards the kettle.

"No thanks. I wanted to talk to you." she shifted. "About me moving into Emmett's room."

"Cool." I shrugged. "It's about time I mean you've been sneaking into his room the past couple of nights. It's only right."

"But."

I picked up my cup. "Have fun, don't ask me to help and use protection or that bastard better make an honest woman out of you."

Living in the same house with a couple that were so grotesquely in love with one another was absolutely appalling. I had taken to listening to my Zune at night for fear of having to hear the two of them and I made sure to clean and sanitize anything and everything I planned on touching even though they were very respectful of my living there.

The searching for a job continued for a few more days and each passing day brought more and more disappointment. Rose and Emmett tried to convince me that I shouldn't worry but I felt guilty having them pay for everything and this was the longest I had gone without a job.

I fell into a small funk and even applied at the local burger joint. Being a vegetarian was rough in fast food joints, the whole touching meat disturbed me but in an hour of need I had worked at a hotdog stand and a few other chain restaurants that served carcass.

I got a call back almost immediately after hitting submit. I had just hung up the phone after agreeing with the manager on a time to meet up for an official interview when the door burst open revealing Emmett's huge ass.

"Get dressed. Something presentable. I might have gotten you a job." he wheezed holding his chest like he was about to have a heart attack.

When I sat, frozen in shock for a second too long, he grabbed me by the arm and drug me to my bedroom. He then tore into my closet like a bat out of hell and started pulling things out and tossing them my way.

"We have to hurry Beezy." he said tossing me my dream jeans.

You know the pair, the one's you buy that are like two sizes too small just for the simple fact that they were insanely cheap. After trying to fit into them doing everything but lathering your thighs down in Crisco to get them over your hips, you turn them into your goal pair of pants… eventually when you're able to shed a few unwanted pounds you will be able to slip them on with a feeling of satisfaction.

I've had my dream jeans for two and a half years. They were only four dollars and refused to stretch to accommodate my nonexistent thunder thighs according to Rose but I couldn't part with them.

"You're going to have to stop and step out of the room Em. I don't think Rose will take it too kindly if she finds out you watched me undress." I shooed him out of the room.

"You forget I came home to find you both doing tequila shots and attempting at hot yoga in your birthday suits." he laughed as I slammed the door in his face.

"It was fucking hot." I screamed.

Not knowing what kind of job interview I was heading for and not wanting to question lard face I dressed in a casual pair of beige flared dress pants and a white button up shirt with a black vest over the top. I decided to wear my power boots the only form of shoe with a heel that I was able to walk somewhat gracefully in. I clipped my shoulder length hair up at the back of my head in a messy but professional bun and straightened my bangs. After applying some cover up to my dreaded period pimples I was plagued with on that certain time of the month, I headed out to find Emmett impatiently waiting by the door foot tapping and all.

We got in his giant red neck honky tonk truck and headed towards Forks.

"I thought you refused to let me interview at the game store?" I asked as we entered Forks.

"Oh you're not interviewing at the game store." Emmett smiled before turning to me. "How good are you with kids?"

"Um, never really felt the need to get to know one. Why?" then it donned on me. "Emmett, I'm not working at Chuckee Fucking Cheeses."

"Shut up." he sighed before pulling into the driveway of a massive house. "Get ready to lie a little. On second thought, let me do all the talking."

**Edward Cullen POV**

The search for a proper nanny for Lucas was grueling and a proverbial dead end. I had interviewed more than fifty women but during none of those had I felt in my heart that they were the right ones. I even interviewed a few men but none of the applicants met my needs and wants.

I was dying to hole up in my office, a room on the first floor that my mother and sister in law set up for me. I had attempted to go inside a few times just to do a little bit of writing but every time I started up my computer, something would happen. The door bell would ring, Lucas would decide he didn't want to be alone during his tummy time on the floor by my desk or the dryer would beep.

Today I decided to take us on a walk back to the strip mall. Just as we passed Moe's, Emmett walked out and gestured for us to go inside.

"I'm so effing bored today. My girlfriend refuses to come down here for lunch and Mondays are super dead. Seriously I don't even know why we open on Mondays." he said as he handed me a soda out of the mini fridge behind the counter. "How's Luke today?"

"Great. I'm trying to find a nanny but I'm about to give up." I shrugged.

"You're looking for a nanny?"

"Yeah. I've interviewed about fifty people and no one meets my expectations. I haven't been able to work in weeks and it's sort of driving me crazy." I babbled.

"Well what are you looking for?"

"I need someone that's willing to come and live with Lucas and I. I'm sort of new at this, so experience is a plus. I have to travel for work at times so I need the nanny to be willing to travel with Lucas and I." I sighed. " I think I've set my standards too high. I work at home but need time that I can just sort of escape to my office without having to worry about feeding Lucas. Great now I sound like an ass hole."

"Nah, I understand dude." Emmett patted me on the shoulder harshly and looked down at Lucas as he slept in his stroller. "He's a pretty cool kid eh?"

"Well he's the first one I've ever met but as far as I can tell, he's pretty easy to please. Clean diaper and a warm bottle make him happy." I smiled down at my godson.

"I'm about to close shop." Emmett passed me a pad of paper and pencil. "Write down your address and give me an hour. I might be able to answer your prayers."

"What are you talking about?" I asked looking down at the paper.

"Just trust me. I'll see you in an hour at your house."

After stopping and grabbing some diapers and formula Lucas, I headed home. To be truthful I didn't really put a lot of faith in Emmett's attempt at answering my prayers. I had just sat down to feed him a bottle when the doorbell rang.

Lucas was not too happy to have his meal interrupted so I hurried to the door.

Lucas was screaming as I opened the door and the only thing I heard was a feminine voice softly ask. "Dude are they torturing a cat or some shit in there?" before Emmett coughed.

"Bella meet Edward. Edward this is my roommate and really good friend Bella Swan. Currently unemployed."

**Told you this would happen soon :)... **

**Reviews are better than slipping into your dream jeans and being able to still breath once they are fastened ;)**

**Happy New Years Yall.. **

**moderation is key... unfortunately that's something I'll never learn to practice.. *pops a few advil* wish me luck on the writing front this week. I've been busy and the weekends are my time to shine lol. **

**the next update wont be till next week cause I'm going out of town, pray for my safety the monster in law was not happy that we had to postpone.. I'ma scared.**

** REVIEWS GET SNEAK PEAKS**

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	5. The Interview

**I don't own it**

**I survived the monster in law... I'm sorry to say that I didn't survive girls night last night.. I think I'm still drunk so bare with me if this chapter isn't up to par. **

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter five **

**Bella Swan POV**

"_Bella meet Edward. Edward this is my roommate and really good friend, Bella Swan. Currently unemployed."_

The dude holding the reason behind all of the noise just stared at me as if I had grown a third eyeball or something and I realized that he might have heard my comment. Clamping my hand over my mouth I gave him an apologetic smile.

"Come on in." Edward said as he resituated the screaming infant. "Lucas is apparently starving to death."

The chubby baby that was writhing in his arms clearly had never turned down a boob or bottle for that matter. He had flaming red hair that was sticking up in not so casual disarray up in his wrestling around in an effort to find the source and his baby blues were shining with frustration. The squeal emitting from him was eardrum rupturing, but Edward seemed to not notice.

I followed Emmett inside the house still confused at the situation. He had told me that we were going to be going to an interview but here we were, at a huge ass house with a dude and his baby.

I really hoped that Emmett wasn't trying to get me a job as a maid. I'd rather go and flip burgers at Shake's Shack and I'm a vegetarian, rather than clean up after rich bitches and their ass hole children. A quick look at Edward's hands told me that he wasn't married but people that had children lived together without being married all the time. He could be a single lazy ass mo-fo or he could have a girlfriend at work or inside. He was definitely a looker, all bronze hair and bright granny smith apple green eyes so it wouldn't be surprising if he had a honey. If so, she was probably a blonde bimbo that refused to do a dish or touch a vacuum cleaner.

_Rich bitches piss me off._

We sat in a very spacious and beautifully decorated sitting room that was possibly larger than the entire apartment that I shared with Emmett and Rose. I was surprised to see that there wasn't plastic covering on the furniture as we sat in plush couches. Edward snatched a bottle off the coffee table and placed it in front of the wailing babe's mouth. Immediately the hungry cries turned into greedy grunts as he tore into his bottle sucking the rubber nipple like his life depended on it.

"Damn Edward starve your baby much?" Emmett said as he threw his arm over the back of the couch we were sitting on and squeezed my shoulder hard.

"No." Edward snapped. "He's just used to a very complex and set schedule that he was placed on at birth."

I was right. Rich bitches and their set schedules.

He then turned to me. "I'm sure you understand how important maintaining an infant's schedule is?"

_Did I look like I have a kid at home or some shit?_

Inconspicuously I looked down at my belly. Still flat and toned. While unemployed I tried to stay fit with yoga and here lately that was my only form of entertainment. I wasn't able to fit in my goal jeans but I could feel the burn.

"Um-" Emmett cut me off.

"Yeah Bella knows loads about the baby thing. She used to baby sit my little brother and sister when they were younger."

_That's funny. Emmett's an only child._

Edward gave me a warm smile before turning his attention back to the baby. He had a pretty mouth… And body… he was all around pretty let's just put it at that.

"Well Miss. Swan."

"Bella, please." I insisted.

"Bella." He smiled. "Tell me some stuff about you so that I can see what we might be getting into. Lucas and I."

"What do you mean?" I sat up a little straighter hoping he would elaborate. _He was clearly not gay so that made Lucas the baby in his arms_. He didn't mention a lady friend but that wasn't really my business.

"Just tell me something I don't know about you." he sent me a wink and I proceeded to have a severe case of word vomit brought on by the simple muscle spasm.

"I'm twenty four years old. I grew up in Forks with my grandmother but moved to Port Angeles with Emmett and Rose after she passed away. I fear escalators and spiders. I'm a vegetarian." When I paused he just gestured for me to continue as he situated Lucas on his shoulder and started patting his back like he was choking or something. There were no sounds coming from the little tyke so I figured he was okay, I mean Edward would stop from blathering if his son was in danger or some shit right? "I have broken seven bones in my lifetime, six of which happened at the same time when I attempted to perform a Jackass stunt after seeing the first movie. Green beans freak me out and I've only had one pet a goldfish named Garfield that I accidentally killed when I tried to give it coffee. Speaking of coffee I have an insane addiction to the stuff. Anything with caffeine really but iced coffee is my forte." I finally realized that both Emmett and Edward were staring at me with amused smiles.

"And I just realized that you were probably wanting information on my work history not my life's story." I blushed ducking my head.

"No, you did good." Edward chuckled sending another powerful wink my way.

_God he's so pretty. I should probably stop calling him pretty… handsome, biblical? A masterpiece. _

"Well, I'm done I guess." I shrugged still embarrassed. "I mean aren't the hired help supposed to be allowed to be somewhat elusive? 'The butler did it' and all that jazz. You probably know more about me now than you do about your boss."

Edward threw his head back and laughed heartedly before stopping, a sad smile graced his lips as he pulled Lucas off of his shoulder and laid him on his legs. Lucas cooed and waved his tiny little hands, awkwardly causing me to snort.

"Yeah he's drunk on milk." Edward said wiping Lucas's mouth with the edge of his baby bib before sitting back and looking at me with a serious expression. "Alright Bella. This has been a deal breaker with some of my recent applicants. Are you available to move in here effective immediately if you get the job?"

"Um, well." I shot Emmett a worried look and he just smiled.

"It's not like Rose and I haven't been doing the bills on our own Bee Bee. This is a really good opportunity for you." he assured me. "I mean I hate to see you go and I'm sure Rosie will feel the same but it's not like you can't visit."

I turned to Edward. "Apparently I'm being forced out of my home so that shouldn't be a problem." I elbowed Emmett playfully.

"Alright question two." Edward reached over and grabbed a baby rattle from a basket under the coffee table and handing it to a gabbing Lucas. "My occupation entails traveling every so often. How apposed are you to traveling at least once every so often? Of course it will be all expense paid."

"Wait. Are you that much of a slob?" I blurted out before I could catch myself.

"What?" Edward asked clearly as confused as I was at the moment.

"What I meant is. No wonder none of the other applicants have made it through your interviews. What kind of person drags their house maid along with them when they go out of town?" I tried to continue but Emmett clamped his meaty hand over my mouth effectively shutting me up.

"Bella, Edward isn't hiring a maid. Lucas here needs a nanny." he said.

"Oh." I squeaked pulling Emmett's hand off my mouth and looking over at the baby who was now slapping himself in the face with his rattle and giggling. "Oh."

**Edward Cullen POV**

Everything had been going perfectly until Bella revealed that she thought that I was hiring a house maid. The house was big but nothing a person with my lifestyle couldn't handle. Vicky and James never had a maid or nanny for that matter, so hiring a nanny would make it even easier to keep everything organized and give me more than a little peace of mind while I was working.

Emmett was quick to correct her assumption and I got a little worried when she sat with a shocked expression plastered on her face while she stared at Lucas as he resided on my lap. Her petite mouth formed an 'O'.

"Shouldn't you stop him from doing that?" She asked gesturing to Lucas who was now slapping himself in the face again with his rattle.

I took the rattle from him and made a note to find some softer noise making toys for him if he was going to continue this form of self harm. He got angry so I let him latch onto my fingers and pulled him to stand up against my legs.

Lucas was born three months early. After scaring the living day lights out of his family we found out that he was going to be a little slower in development. While most nine month olds were able to pull themselves up to a standing position and some of them able to walk, Lucas had just started sitting on his own. Right before Vicky and James died Lucas was starting to army crawl/scoot around on his own but it would be a while before he walked.

"Are you alright Bella?" I asked after a few moments of silence figuring that she was going to book it. It was apparent that Emmett had drug her here without informing her about anything critical like the fact that she was coming to interview to be a caretaker of an infant, not a damn maid.

"I'm fine. Just a little surprised that's all." She blushed.

She was a very beautiful woman. When I first saw her I was struck with how breathtaking she was. I was a little apprehensive after hearing the first words to come out of her mouth but at the point I was pretty desperate. It didn't feel like an interview so I kept it light and comfortable.

When Bella started rambling after I asked her to tell me about herself, I was surprised. She had been relatively quiet after the initial introduction and here she was rambling about her life story. Usually it would annoy me, a woman going on and on about themselves but with her, it was completely different. I found myself gesturing for her to continue when she stopped to take a breath and wanting to hear more when she caught on to what she had been doing. Her blush was adorable, flushing from her hair line all the way to the professional collar of her blouse.

"Um, what exactly does a nanny's job entail?" she asked fidgeting with her sleeve.

"Your sole purpose would be to care for and look after Lucas and any of his needs. I work at home so I will be here most of the time but your responsibility will be to bathe, watch, feed and nurture him."

"Wouldn't you be the nurturer?" Bella asked nervously as she looked at Lucas curiously.

"Of course. But there are things that I can't provide to Lucas. He's recently lost his mother and father so I want to try my absolute best to give him a normal life."

Bella's eyes grew wide as did Emmett's.

"Wait. I thought you were Lucas's father?" he asked sitting up a little straighter and looking a little angry.

Bella's eyes welled up with tears so she took a second to wipe them on her sleeve.

"No, I'm his god father. His mom and dad died two weeks and four days ago. He was left in my care under the direct instructions to raise him as my own. His mother, my best friend Vicky believed that he was young enough to not know the difference and wanted him to have a normal childhood." I explained sadly.

I hadn't opened up like this to any of the applicants but something about Bella was different.

"I'm sorry." Bella whispered her voice thick with emotion.

"Don't be. It was tragic but I want to make them proud by raising Lucas as best as I can. I'm new to the game so I'm gonna need a lot of help." my voice broke at the end and it didn't go unnoticed by Bella or Emmett.

Where she frowned sadly and blinked away tears, Emmett shifted uncomfortably wrapping his arm around Bella comfortingly and Lucas began to whimper a little in my lap.

"I'd love the opportunity to help you as best as I can Edward." Bella said intently. "But I need to be honest with you."

I waved my hand for her to continue.

"I don't really have a good rapport with holding a job and it's not that I'm not a good worker, it's just that I haven't found the one that's for me." she blushed again.

Despite her background something told me that Bella was meant to be Lucas's nanny. My mother warned me not to jump the gun though.

"That shouldn't be a problem. I think it would be wise to do a trial period. If you feel that the job isn't for you then you can walk away clean." I replied. "You can bring a bag or something until we come to a mutual decision. That way you don't move everything in only to move it back out."

"O-okay. Um there's something else." Bella shot Emmett an apologetic look before turning to me. "I have absolutely no experience."

_Well fuck._

**_That's Bella Swan being responsible guys. lol_**

**_Hope you liked it.. Reviews get sneak peaks _**

**_I'm going back to bed_**


	6. Lucas's Unprepared for Diaper Change

**Disclaimer: I still don't own it...**

**Alrighty kids, let's get our read on.**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter six **

**Bella Swan POV **

Hearing Edward speak about Lucas's short past broke my heart. I could barely contain my emotions. Tears welled up in my eyes so I discreetly wiped them away.

Little Luke and I had more in common than I thought except for I was given the opportunity to meet both my parents. I could barely remember my mother but Lucas was just a baby. There was no way he would ever remember anything about his mother and father that wasn't taught to him by Edward or other family members.

I could tell by the way Edward was talking that he was going to offer me the job. I have had plenty of interviews and know from experience the look in his eye told me I was a shoe in. There was no way I could come into this home to care for an infant without being honest. Edward seemed to take it in stride that I have had a colorful employment background.

Then I bit the bullet and informed him of my lack of mini people experience.

"What exactly do you mean none?" Edward asked slowly.

"Well let's just say this is the closest I've ever been to a baby." I explained pointing to the infant in his lap.

I watched his once somewhat hopeful face fall in disappointment and immediately started backpedaling. "But I'm a really quick learner. I can take classes at the YMCA up the road. I saw that they have parenting classes and stuff when I went there to swim last week. I'll sign up immediately."

"That actually sounds great. They also have online classes. I haven't had time to enroll yet but I'm sure we could work a schedule out so that we could both learn a thing or two." Edward said before grimacing. "Do you think you want to give this a go?"

"Yes." I answered without an ounce of hesitation.

"Well then you can pack a bag and come back tomorrow. I'm sure I could teach you the basics and my mother will be here all day tomorrow to help out while I work and she raised two sons. She could probably teach you better than those classes." Edward smiled fondly and I could tell that he adored his mother. "If that's alright with you I mean."

"Um yeah. The sooner the better." I nodded.

"It's agreed then. Are you ready for your first assignment?"

"Huh?"

Edward clearly took my confusion as 'yes chef, right away chef, name it chef' because he stood up eagerly and walked over to the couch and plopped Lucas's lighter than he looks body in my surprised arms.

"Good, Lucas needs a diaper change."

Emmett burst out laughing causing me to jump and the baby to cry nervously. I did the only thing that felt right and pressed him to my chest in an effort to comfort him. He nuzzled my chest and started to calm down until the smell of rancid broccoli hit my nose and I recoiled.

"What the heck is that smell?" I asked trying not to breathe for fear that if I tried to only inhale through my mouth that I would taste it.

"Come on Bee, do you have to ask. Go change the baby before it starts squishing out of the diaper." Emmett said leaning as far away from me as he could. "Seriously it happens all the time. My little cousin Kate used to explode out of her diaper all-"

"Emmett I'm sure we get the idea." Edward interrupted with a sour look. "I'm sure that Bella could deal without the horror stories. Am I right?"

"Yes you are." I smiled.

"Well come on. I'll show you the nursery and we'll see about teaching you how to change a diaper."

"Um yeah, do you want to uh." I nodded down at Lucas in an effort to get Edward to take him.

It was the first time I had ever held a baby and as tiny and cute as he was I didn't want to drop him or something while standing. Breaking the baby would be followed by my being fired and that wouldn't do.

"Nope, you gotta learn sometime." he held out his hand but I refused to take the both of them off of the baby. "It's alright all you have to do is cradle him in the crook of your arm."

When I made no move, Edward leaned down and situated Lucas in the crook of one of my arms and grabbed my other helping me stand.

Of course my being myself I stumbled a little.

"Are you alright?" Edward asked.

Emmett snorted. "Yeah that's normal Bella behavior. She who trips over air on daily basis."

"Alright name I cannot say in the presence of young ears." I shot him a warning glare before turning to Edward. "Lead the way boss."

Edward smiled and led the way to a staircase. He walked slowly with me by his side probably making sure I wasn't going to trip and roll down the stairs carrying the poor innocent baby. He opened the door revealing a beautiful nursery. Clouds were painted all over the ceiling in shapes of animals, a robot and even an ice-cream cone. All of the furniture was a calming blue and I noticed that there were only two pictures hanging up. One of Edward holding a very tiny bundle of blue, he had a nervous smile on his face as he looked at the camera. The second one was of Edward, a tiny Lucas and a couple. The picture had clearly been taken a while back because Lucas had no hair.

"That's Vicky and James." Edward said sadly pointing to the couple. "Lucas was two months old. He was born three months early so Vicky refused to let him out of the house until he got a complete clean bill of health. The waitress sneezed and Vicky freaked out and we left almost right after the picture was taken. She suffered from severe OCD."

"Dang." I said walking over to a table that had diapers and a canister sitting on top.

"Alright you just lay him on the mat make sure you stay right there because he's learning how to roll over and crawl." Edward instructed pulling a diaper off the stack and unfolding it. "Grab four or five wipes out of the can until you're a little more experienced."

I did as he asked and he showed me how to unfold them and lay them out. "Be prepared." is all he said before showing me how to put the clean diaper under Lucas before opening the soiled diaper.

Lucas cooed and stared at me. I could tell he was attempting to carry on a conversation.

"Hey there handsome boy. I'm gonna clean your butt huh?" I asked in a cute voice earning a big gummy smile.

"The rest is pretty much common sense, I'll be right back." Edward said, his voice thick with emotion before he turned and walked out of the room.

I turned my attention back to Lucas who was trying to stuff a wipe he had grabbed somehow into his mouth. I snatched it away from him gently and he gagged at the taste of his alcohol covered hands.

"Yeah those are yucky huh?" I asked pulling the little tape tabs off and unleashing the beast.

I wasn't expecting what happened next, or the scream that emitted from my mouth.

**Edward Cullen POV**

Lucas continued to babble as Bella laid him on the changing table.

"Hey there handsome boy. I'm gonna clean your butt huh?" Bella asked him in a baby voice as he smiled up at her.

Seeing her bent over him and talking to him like that reminded me of Vicky and I had to stop myself before I started crying. Clearly I didn't want her to think she was working for an emotionally unstable person. "The rest is pretty much common sense. I'll be right back." I managed to get out before leaving the room quickly.

I went straight to my bathroom and washed my face trying to get a hold on my bearings. I had just dried my hands when I heard a scream coming from the nursery.

Dropping the towel I ran across the hall to find Bella holding a clean diaper over Lucas's bottom half, her hair dripping. She cautiously leaned over and lifted the diaper and another fountain of urine sprouted from it. I held my laughter at her yelp as she covered him back up.

"How much pee do you have in there buddy?" she asked earning a cute giggle from Lucas.

"Is everything okay in here?" I asked walking over as if everything was normal.

"Um, yeah sure." Bella blushed deeply before sighing. "Alright so I lied. He um… peed on...everything?"

"I can see that." I laughed bending down to get a burp cloth from under the table before handing it to her. "I forgot to warn you."

"Huh, don't think I didn't see that smirk." she scolded as she dried her face and hair. "Alright I'm ready to try again."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I have to learn quick if I'm starting tomorrow." she said, the only thing missing was the 'duh'.

"Oh it's just surprising. Lucas peed on my sister in law when she was watching him during the interviews and she refuses to touch him below the belt now." I laughed remembering the scream Alice had emitted after realizing Lucas had stained her white jean skirt.

"Well, I don't back down from a challenge." Bella smiled coyly before looking down at Luke. "Are we done babes?"

Lucas cooed and tried to reach for the baby wipes that were laying out, but Bella expertly moved them away from him and went back to changing his diaper without further incident. As soon as she snapped the last elastic band she gave a cute little fist bump and cheered.

"I did it."

"Congratulations." I chuckled.

Bella insisted that Lucas needed to change seeing as he had urinated all over the onesie he was wearing. When I mentioned giving him a bath later she said she wanted to learn how to do that as well so I put it on my list of things to have my mother teach her tomorrow. Instead of changing his clothes, I left Lucas in his diaper and put him in his crib, turning the mobile on over his head.

Bella followed closely behind taking in everything I was doing.

"He doesn't look tired." She whispered.

"He always naps after he eats a bottle but with all of the excitement." I waved my hand dismissively before grabbing the receiver of the baby monitor and exiting the room. "I'll show you your bedroom before we head downstairs."

The bedroom next to the nursery was the only smart option because the other bedroom was downstairs and that would be pointless. Bella took note on a few things like the size of the bed and windows.

"I like a certain kind of sheets and black out shades." she explained after seeing my confused face.

Emmett was flipping through channels on the big TV when we finally made it down the stairs. As soon as he saw us, he jumped up.

"Rose just called. She is picking up dinner tonight and we have to let her know what's going on and give her a proper amount of time to cry over you." he explained turning to me. "I told you I'd answer your prayers. If she makes you question your decision just call me and I'll come over and beat her."

Bella slapped him in the back of the head and he pouted.

"I was just kidding Bee Bee. Come by the shop later this week Edward. Now that you've got a nanny, we'll see about hooking you up with a game system."

"Alright." I laughed. "Bella do you need a ride tomorrow?"

"No, I have transportation." she smiled. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. What time is good?"

"Lucas is up around seven so anytime after that is good for us." I shrugged.

"I'll be here bright and early then. And thank you Edward. You didn't have to give me this chance."

"Just don't let us down. That's all I ask."

"I'll try not to."

I watched as Bella hopped up into Emmett's huge truck before shutting the door. I waved goodbye as they pulled out of the driveway and pulled my cell phone out hitting speed dial.

My mother picked up on the first ring.

"Hello sweetie. How are two of my favorite boys?"

"We're great. I was just calling to make sure you were still planning on coming over to help out tomorrow?" I asked as I set up a pot of soup to warm up on the stove.

"Of course. I know how important it is for you to get some writing done. I'll be there." she said happily.

"Well I actually need you to come over and help the new nanny get acclimated to the schedule and everything."

"Oh you hired a nanny? That's wonderful dear."

"Yeah well Bella doesn't have any experience but-"

"Honey you hired someone without any experience?" the worry in my mother's voice was evident.

"Vicky told me that I would know when the right one came along and I felt it when she walked through the door. She's a quick learner and Lucas really likes her. She's also offered to take the recommended child classes and I figured you could come over and show her the ropes."

"Alright dear." her voice was hesitant and I really hoped that she would give Bella a chance.

She was exactly what we needed

**Alrighty, you know the drill. Reviews get sneak peaks. I can't send sneak peaks to anonymous reviews sooooo if you are one of the anonymous ones. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! ;) **

**Apparantly in my drunk induced haze last Saturday I forgot one of the most important parts of my updates.. the review peen sooooo here you goes**

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**oh it's so long.. op and here's another one**

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	7. The Great Escape

**Disclaimer:I don't own it**

**Alrighty.. I tried, really i did.. to update sooner but it's just not working for me at the moment. I'm in the process of trying to find another job and my current one is turning out pretty shitty, after like five and half years. I'm so glad everyone is liking this story.. me too.. I'm rereading before I post and it's sort of like I'm reading it with you guys.**

**Oh yeah and Bella wanted me to thank everyone for the horror baby diaper changing stories.. she is so glad she's not the first and only person to ever be peed on during a diaper change. lol**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Seven **

**Bella Swan POV **

As Emmett pulled out of the impeccable gravel driveway I waited until I couldn't see the big white house before turning to him. Slapping him in the back of the head and twisting his right nipple at the same time is something I learned to do years ago.

"What the French Bee?" He screamed in surprise slapping my hands away from his chest.

"Some fucking warning would be nice you dick." I yelled, my voice reverberating around the cab of the truck.

"If I told you that you were interviewing for a nanny position you wouldn't have come and you know it." Emmett sighed. "Edward is a really good guy and Lucas just needs some stability."

"So you throw me in the mix? Yeah Emmett I'm the poster child for stability." I snorted. "You lied to a single instant father about my experience Emmet. Don't you think he would notice when he placed the baby in my arms that I'd never held one let alone been around one?"

"I'll be the first to admit that was a bad call on my part. We're all known to have those every now and then you know." Emmett smiled sheepishly. "But I really wanted to help the both of you out."

"And get the house to yourself with Rose eh?"

"It's not even like that Bella." Emmett's voice was hurt and I felt bad at making the assumption.

"I know Em, I'm sorry. I've been waiting for you and Rose to get together for years now so I know you two could use some privacy. I'm scared though. I've never lived away from you guys."

"You're going to do great. I have a feeling everything will be just fine." Emmett sighed. "Now for the hard part."

"Yeah those classes are going to be a bitch." I muttered.

"No, not the classes. Telling Rose you're moving out."

"Dun dun duun." I hummed the death march.

.

.

.

"What the fuck do you mean you're moving out?" Rose demanded as she forked eggplant parmesan onto our plates, her hands shaking in anger.

I had just let it out that I was making a move and she clearly wasn't taking the news well.

"I've gotten a job that requires me to live in my boss's house." I explained, opening the containers of dipping sauces for the breadsticks.

"What kind of job do you get that involves you moving out of your home though? You better not become some whore or something. Tell me some weird dude isn't going to pay you money while you clean and fuck him are you?" she sat down next to Emmett who hadn't said a fucking word since I opened my big fucking mouth.

Clearly pussy whipped already.

"Shut up Rose. Like I would even go and do something that raunchy." I snapped.

"Yeah I sometimes forget your our virgin girl." she sang sarcastically. "So what does this job entail?"

"Well, Emmett's friend Edward recently gained custody of his godson and is in need of a live in nanny so Emmett offered me up." I explained innocently knowing what was about to happen.

Rose's face turned a god awful shade of red as she turned to Emmett. "What the hell is she talking about Emmett? You wanted her out of the house or something? Is that your plan?" she yelled.

"No Rosie baby. Edward needs help and I figured Bella would be great. Working basically at home and she gets to play all fucking day that's all." Emmett said quietly like a child that had just been scolded by their mother.

"Well that's what it sounds like to me. God knows what it sounded like to Bella." she turned to me with a soft expression. "Bells you don't have to go anywhere you don't want to. I want you here."

"I know Rose. I want to do this though. Maybe leaving the comfort of my own home will help me keep a job. You two have spoiled me." I stood up and hugged her tightly. "Besides it's only a trial. When Edward makes his decision that he wants to keep me on as Lucas's nanny, I'll move all of my stuff."

"But. Bella you have never been around kids. What makes you think that this is going to be the job for you?"

"They need me." I shrugged.

The rest of dinner went by quickly. After I washed the dishes I excused myself to my bedroom and began packing the necessities. I had just filled a bag with underwear because you can never have enough clean panties when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in." I called.

The door opened revealing a sad looking Rose. She was dressed in her comfy pajamas as she shuffled over to me, sitting down on the floor with her back against the bed. Her Tweety bird slippers were too big for her to comfortably cross her legs like me so instead she crossed them at the ankle making Tweety look like he was making out with himself.

"Hi." she said softly.

"Hi." I mimicked.

"So." Rose began. "Since I know you're too hard headed to allow me try to convince you into staying even though I really want you to stay. I don't care if I have to pay all of the bills and everything for the rest of our lives Bells. I just want you to stay."

"I know Rose. I'm a little afraid to be away from you and Emmett, but I need to venture out on my own. You two just got together but I've felt like the third wheel for a while." I held up my hand before she could interrupted. "You better not apologize. You two are perfect for each other and I couldn't be happier for you but I also know that you guys need time for yourselves without worrying about me. I have a feeling that this will be a good thing. For all of us." I hugged her close to my side.

"Well, Emmett might know this Edward dude but I sure as hell don't." she sat a little straighter. "Tell me something about the man that's stealing my best friend away."

"Don't be like that. He's a great guy Rose. He works from home so he'll be there most of the time in case of an emergency or something. And Lucas is a sweetie. He peed on me when I changed his diaper and from what I can tell, really likes to hit himself in the face. He's got this bright red hair and these blue eyes that are like looking into the ocean and when he eats, he grunts like Emmett. He's just adorable really. I want to do this Rose."

"Fine. Emmett said you're heading out their tomorrow?"

"Yep."

"Well I'm coming with you." Rose said clapping her hands on her legs and standing up.

"Wait what?" I stood up and followed her out of the room bag-o-underwear in hand.

"I want to meet the dude before my best friend slash little sister moves in with him. I mean who cares if he has a baby he could be one of those weird dudes. I don't want you calling me in a week or two because you woke up to find him breathing on you while you slept." she explained. "Besides I asked you to tell me something about him and you friggin told me one sentence."

"Eww Rose." I shivered. " I doubt that will be a problem."

Despite my begging Rose wouldn't budge and was going to be following me to Edward's house the following morning under the pretense that she was helping me with my stuff.

An epic movie night was held in honor of my departure the following morning after I finished packing my bags. Emmett was banished to the bedroom while Rose and I watched chick flicks. She allowed him to come out and enjoy a few horror flicks and I woke up the following morning alone on the couch.

It was weird seeing her have so much hold over him but more comical than so.

In an attempt to get out of the house without waking up the other two, I ended up accidentally tripping and knocking over a vase of water that had been sitting on the table in the hallway since last Valentine's day. The flowers were long gone but for some reason the three of us never threw away the water or put it away somewhere safe. Of course the glass shattered across the hall and the water immediately started to puddle around the table.

"Shit shit shit." I muttered trying to tip toe across the wet floor and steer clear from the shards.

I could hear rustling in the opposite bedroom but the door remained shut as I cleaned up my mess. I managed to get all of my bags out into the bed of my truck and left a fake note explaining that I tried everything to wake them up to say goodbye but they didn't answer. I apologized to Rose for her not being able to meet my newest employer and that I would call them to meet up this weekend.

The drive to Edward's home was fairly short and I was surprised to see two unfamiliar cars in the driveway parked next to the silver Volvo that I assumed was Edward's. I was attempting to park out of the way when someone knocked on the window of the passenger side causing me to hit the brakes roughly with a surprised yelp.

Not knowing if the small woman in the designer coat and short pixie hair was a carjacker or not, I rolled down the window just a crack.

"Hi I'm Alice." she said, her voice high soprano.

"Umm Bella?"

"Edward wanted me to come out and tell you to park next to his car. He said he'll come out and grab your bags." she flitted back up to the porch in her flowing fairy like skirt and ballet flats.

I sat there for a second watching her before I pulled into my designated spot. Alice was waiting for me as I walked up the steps of the small side porch. She was shorter than me coming up to the bottom of my chin. The only reason I know that because she threw her teeny arms around me in a giant hug the second I made it up to the top step.

"I'm so glad he finally hired someone. Your hair is beautiful. I love all the layers and the color it's just wow. Do you dye or are those highlights natural?" she kept shooting questions at me as she ran her hands through my hair.

I had spent a good twenty minutes meticulously straightening it this morning and here this woman, who I didn't know was running her hands through it.

"Umm, no I don't dye it. I cut it myself so the layer's are all mine. I do have natural highlights. I should get inside though." I pulled away trying not to show her that she was definitely inside my personal bubble.

"Oh okay. My mother in law is excited to meet you. She called me last night and asked me to come over and help out." she smiled brightly as she led me inside the house. "Lucas just woke up from his nap so I can show you how to feed him."

As soon as the door shut I could hear the baby crying deeper inside the house. Alice led me back to the sitting room we had sat in the day before and I saw Edward sitting next to an older woman who was holding Lucas. He was crying and reaching for the bottle in Edward's hands.

"She's here. Edward get up and go get her stuff while we teach her our ways." Alice said pulling Edward to his feet and gesturing for me to sit down next to the other woman. "Bella this is my mother in law Esmeralda Cullen."

"Call me that and we'll have problems. Esme is fine." she said holding her hand out to me to shake.

"Nice to meet you Esme." I said shyly as I sat next to her.

Lucas who had been following the bottle with his eyes as it moved away from him in Edward's hands looked at me before reaching out. Esme laughed as she placed him in my arms and he laid himself in the crook of my elbow whimpering dramatically.

Edward came over and knelt in front of me holding the bottle out for me to grab. "All you have to do is keep it angled a little and he'll do most of the work." he said quietly as Lucas grabbed the bottle in his greedy paws. "It's good to see you made it Bella."

"Thanks." I blushed.

"Alright Edward rain is coming so get you're a-s-s out there and grab Bella's stuff before it gets wet. Mom and I've got this."

"Yes ma'am." Edward saluted and exited the room.

To say I was afraid to be left alone with Esme and Alice would be an understatement. As soon as I heard the door shut both women turned to stare at me.

**Hope you liked it. I know we're moving at a snails pace right now but trust me.. it's gonna get better and move a little quicker in the next few chapters. **

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	8. Handsy McGee

**Disclaimer: I don't own it.. I say that a lot dont I?**

**ATTENTION READERS: THANKS FOR ALL OF THE WISHES ON BEHALF OF MY EMPLOYMENT. IT MUST HAVE WORKED CAUSE I GOT THE JOB SUNDAY AND AM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT;)... MY SCHEDULE IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE I USED TO WORK, NIGHTS INSTEAD OF DAYS AND WHILE THE JOB PAYS MORE AND IS LOADS EASIER MY BODY ISN'T USED TO IT SO I'M TRYING TO GET ACCLIMATED.**

**THANKS SO MUCH**

**READ ON**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Eight **

**Edward Cullen POV **

"Well, I had a moment of realization last night about this whole nanny ordeal." My mother said as she folded a basket of towels for me. "You probably could tell that I wasn't very happy about you hiring an inexperienced woman but then I thought."

"Oh lord. Alert the presses the woman had a thought." Alice called dramatically through the room as she rocked Lucas in her arms happily.

"Alice Cullen you shut your mouth right now." My mother scolded throwing a washcloth at Alice before turning back to me. "Anyways as I was saying. I figured that this is actually a blessing in disguise. This woman is going to come in here and allow me to teach her how to properly care for Lucas whom I've known since day one. I can teach her all of my tricks and Vicky's unique things so there's no need for her to go and take those god awful classes."

"You're going to teach her your wicked ways in a day?" I asked with a hint of amusement.

"Of course not. I took the next week off. I'll be here to get Bella thoroughly acclimated to being a proper caregiver to an infant." My mother shrugged.

"Oh."

"Oh? Haha you broke Edward." Alice laughed as she sat down next to my mother and handed her Luke before taking over the folding. "I think this is going to be wonderful. It will be nice to hang-out with another girl."

"Thanks Alice. You really should watch what you say." My mother said as she rubbed Lucas's tummy causing him to coo. "If this girl has any sense, she will run far, very far away from you and you will be stuck hanging-out with me. The only girl in this vicinity that can take your verbal abuse."

"Oh momma Es, you know I'm just playing." Alice hugged my mom from the side and then snorted. "Or you're just stuck with me because I married your baby."

"Technically I'm the baby. Jasper is an old man." I argued.

"Aww, is Edward jealous?" Alice asked sadly before she perked up. "She's here!"

Lucas, clearly surprised by the outburst started to cry so I hurried to make him a bottle knowing it was almost time for his next feeding.

"Alice run out there and tell Bella to park next to my car." I instructed as I pulled a clean bottle off of the drying rack.

"Aww, look Ma he's already sharing things with her. It must be love, why else would he hire the most inexperienced person to care for his baby?" Alice said clutching her heart. "And here I thought the boy was gay."

"ALICE." Both my mother and I yelled while Lucas started to cry dramatically.

_Yep definitely time for his next bottle._

"Sorry, going. I'm going." Alice huffed walking out of the house through the door on the side of the kitchen that leads to the garage and driveway.

"She's only joking Edward." my mom said as I sat down and took Lucas from her.

Immediately he started to reach for his bottle, but my mother stopped me saying that it would be a perfect opportunity to show Bella how to properly feed him. I argued that Bella should have time to get settled but mother rules all. She just simply stated that there was no time like the present so we both sat there for a few minutes listening to Lucas scream as if he hadn't eaten in forever.

Bella and Alice made it inside and I was happy to see her. She looked a little more comfortable in the worn and torn jeans, sneakers and Chilly Willy t-shirt and I was happy to see that she didn't feel the need to dress fancy. I myself am a pretty laid back person so I wanted her to be comfortable under my employment. Besides there's nothing worse than an expensive shirt getting puked on. I've learned my lesson a time or two.

Lucas immediately wanted Bella when his eyes laid on her so I wasted no time teaching her how to properly hold him so that he wouldn't get a lot of air bubbles.

As instructed I ran outside to grab Bella's bags and was surprised to find a pretty cool Isuzu pup with fat boy tires sitting next to my Volvo. I walked around the front of it checking out to make sure it was safe to transport Lucas, something I hadn't thought of in the process of the nanny hunt. Out of the two cars that belonged to James and Vicky, I decided to put James' restored 67' Camero Coupe into storage for Lucas when he turned sixteen and got his driver's license. Vicky's car was still on lease so I decided to send it back because my car was enough.

The inside of Bella's car was very clean but what surprised me was the fuzzy rainbow colored seat covers and matching steering wheel cover. There was even a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. A few raindrops started to fall so I hurried to grab the surprising five bags from the bed of the truck, two of which were pretty light while the others definitely had some weight to them. I was sort of expecting a butt load of bags because she was a girl and I've been around Alice for ten odd years. The girl liked to shop even when she was sick, nothing could stop her.

The girls were talking and laughing when I finally made it into the house. As soon as the door shut, I could hear the falling rain on the front porch. The chatter didn't stop as I walked through the living room and up the stairs towards Bella's new bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my mother talking Bella through properly burping Lucas while Alice recounted the story of the last time I was puked on. Their laughter followed me up the stairs.

After tossing Bella's bags gently on the foot of the bed I ran down the stairs. Lucas was playing with a curl that had fallen out of the clip that was holding Bella's hair back while she sat with her legs crossed on the floor. As soon as I made it off the last step, she looked up and sent me a sweet smile. I knew I was going to like her.

"Alright if everyone is alright I'm going to head to my office." I pointed towards the hallway. "If you need anything just come in, I wear sound canceling headphones so I won't hear if you knock or scream for that matter."

"Aye aye captain." Alice saluted.

"Yes dear." my mom laughed as Lucas sneezed on Bella's face.

"Sure." Bella said wiping her face off on her the edge of her t-shirt seamlessly unfazed.

She leaned over so that her face was close to his and for a second I thought she was going to kiss him. Instead she breathed in deeply and fake sneezed in his face causing him to jump in surprise and then start laughing.

"That's what you get mister." she fake scolded causing him to giggle again. "Sneezing in girl's faces is gross."

"Aww look she's already teaching him manners." Alice sighed clutching her heart before giving everyone a serious look. "Now we are going to teach Bella how to properly give Lukey a bath and then we're going to take a walk down to the strip for lunch. Bella needs new sheets."

Lucas started to grab at Bella as she sat back up, managing to pull the front of her shirt down revealing a black lace bra and lots of creamy flesh. Almost immediately the creamy flesh flushed pink in embarrassment.

_Black lace…._

**Bella Swan POV**

If I had to choose a time to have my brand new boss see my boobage it would have to be when I was wearing my power bra. One hundred and fifty eight dollars worth of black lace and bamboo under wire and I couldn't wear the fucker without feeling one hundred percent woman. It pushed the girls up and out and I could wear it for days on end without being uncomfortable.

Today was my lucky day because Handsy McGee yanked down the v-neck collar of my shirt revealing my breasts for all the world to see. Well, my boss, his mother and sister in law at least. I could feel myself blushing all the way down to my who-hah and I was relieved that no one made a big deal about it other than Edward's nervous cough as he pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket and handed me a wad of cash.

"Pay for everything no matter what my mother and her sidekick say or do. If you wouldn't mind bringing me home something to eat for lunch so that I can get as much writing in as possible." he shifted. "Never mind. That's not your job. I'll just call and have a pizza delivered."

"Edward. It's fine. I'll pick you up something. Chill. Breath." I patted his hand that was still holding the money out.

"Thank you. Umm Lucas is going to need some more diapers as well, if you can pick those up. My mother knows his size and brand and everything." he rambled.

"Edward. Seriously go write or something. I'm here to be the nanny, it's my job to make sure he has diapers and things." I laughed as I took the money and placed it in my back pocket.

_Seriously dude needed to take a chill pill or drink a forty._

"Damn, Edward just got told." Alice laughed from her perch beside Esme. "I knew I liked you Bella."

Immediately I started back tracking thinking I was about to get fired already.

"I'm sorry Edward. That was completely out of li-"

"It's fine. I'm just as new to this as you are. We'll have to learn as we go alright?" he smiled.

"Kay."

As soon as the door at the very end of the hall closed, Esme jumped up and helped me stand. I picked up Lucas and we followed her and Alice to the kitchen where they proceeded to teach me how to bathe the babe in the sink. I ended up more wet than Lucas by the end of it and had to run upstairs to my new bedroom and change my shirt while they got him dressed. I found the three of them at closet by the front door where I was then taught how to properly open the stroller from hell with one hand while holding the baby in the other.

It took eight tries and I walked away with a impressive blood blister on the inside of my hand.

A good thirty minutes later we were walking down the sidewalk. Alice was twirling ahead of us like a little gypsy like energizer bunny. Eventually she would stop and point something out. I kept waiting for her to say 'oooh shiny' at the next piece of scrap metal that we passed.

"What did your parents say about you becoming a live-in nanny with a single man?" Esme asked as we made it to the strip mall. "If you don't mind me asking."

"That's easy. I don't have any." I shrugged and then attempted to change the subject. "Where do you guys want to eat?"

"What do you mean you don't have any parents?" Alice asked.

"They both are gone. My mom when I was three and my dad when I was twelve. I lost my grandmother when I was still in high school and have been living with Emmett and Rosalie ever since. Until now that is."

"I'm so sorry." Esme pulled me into a sideways hug.

"It's alright. I've had a lot of time to grieve. So I'll ask again. Where do we want to eat?"

Alice ended up dragging us to a Mexican restaurant, I was surprised when Esme ordered a double tequila margarita but Alice explained that Esme couldn't in good conscious eat Mexican food without drinking a margarita. Lucas sat in a highchair next to me and Esme started naming off the different things that were okay for his age that I could feed him while out at a restaurant.

"When in doubt pull out the jar food. He likes the sweeter things like fruit or sweet potatoes and nothing green." she explained handing me a jar of tootie fruity and a spoon with a rubber end. "It's so he doesn't cut his gums."

Feeding the little monster was hard. He liked to bite down on the spoon really hard so that I had to pull and yank. It sort of reminded me of a pit bull playing tug of war. Sometimes he would let go and I would lurch backwards earning a cute little giggle.

We had just gotten our food and Alice pulled out a Monday thru Sunday pill container. She shook out about eight pills and just mumbled 'vitamins' before downing the entire handful with a sip of water.

After sharing a fried ice cream I realized that Lucas needed a diaper change from the smell he was emitting. Esme thoroughly buzzed from her alcoholic beverage just waved me towards the bathroom while Alice explained that she was too full to move. I bravely put the diaper bag on my shoulder before holding my arms out to Lucas.

He gave me a gummy smile and allowed me to pick him up out of the highchair and carry him to the bathroom.

I was in luck once again and the bathroom came with a diaper changing table thing. I only recognized it because I had been bitched out by a mother holding a soggy baby one time at a grocery store when I was using the table to hold my purse while I tied my shoe. Apparently only babies should sit on there.

Lucas was relatively calm as I laid him on the table and got everything ready. I could have sworn that he sighed with relief when I opened his onesie. I talked to him calmly as I checked to make sure I wasn't about to get showered with urine again and the entire ordeal was over rather quickly.

To reward him for his good behavior, I blew a raspberry on his stomach but didn't expect him to put both of his hands in my hair and yank as he squealed in delight. I managed to remove his greedy paws without losing too much hair in the process before putting everything back in the diaper bag and picking him up. Alice and Esme were waiting at the table holding a cell phone between the two of them.

"Three minutes and forty-two seconds. Dang girl you're pretty good for a newb." Alice smiled.

"You timed how long it would take me to change a diaper?" I asked my eyes wide in shock.

"Oh Bella. Timing is everything when it comes to caring for a baby."

Apparently there are a lot of everythings when it comes to caring for a baby. I hope I can keep up.

**I haven't read ahead yet.. and i've written one and a part of another story after writing this so I can't exactly remember what happens next but I promise soon some time will be skipped.. I think it's next chapter... No matter how buys I am I will always have time to send out teasers.. so review and i'll send yah a present kay :}) hhaha he's got a mustache**

**review**

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	9. Earaches and Arguments

**Hello lovelies :)... Happy Friday.. **

**The only reason why I'm updating today is because I have to work a double.. that's fourteen friggin hours straight with no break tomorrow after closing at midnight tonight.. so I'm going to be preoccupied and just a little tired.. so enjoy. **

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Nine **

**Bella Swan POV**

Time had passed rather quickly. For almost four weeks straight I woke up every morning to a coo or cry from the baby in the next room and couldn't believe that I had finally found it. The job that was made for me. I never would have thought that being a nanny was something that would give me the utmost satisfaction but it did.

Sour bottles and soiled diapers were my daily challenges and I couldn't be more happier. Every time Lucas held his arms out for me to pick him up whether it be after he fell on his butt as he walked around the coffee table or first thing in the morning when I went in to get him my heart swelled. His toothless smile was the wallpaper on my cell phone and my laptop and an entire memory card to my old digital camera was dedicated to the cute little things he did on a daily basis.

As many ups there were, I also faced a few downs in the job but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

Edward and I got into a big argument about a month into my trial period, I had spent a month living out of suitcases and bags because I didn't know if he was going to hire me on or fire me. Esme had insisted that I didn't need to take any of the classes at the Y except for the CPR class so I had taken to reading up on the internet and any book I could find at the small local library Lucas and I visited often during our walks. After hearing and reading about the famous Baby Einstein videos, I found an awesome deal for them and bought them out of my own pocket as a gift for Lucas. He loved to sit in the only piece of furniture I brought from the apartment, a large red bean bag chair and watch the bright colors and things.

I had taken to cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner when Edward was working in his office because Esme had warned me that if I didn't interrupt that he would stay in there for a week without eating or bathing. Baby Einstein was an incredible help when I was cooking, all I had to do was lay Lucas in the bean bag and make sure he was snug and turn the TV on and I could clearly see him through the kitchen. I had just started sautéing some vegetables to go with the tofu stir fry I was preparing when Edward came out of his office looking haggard.

"Dinner will be done in a few minutes Edward." I said looking into the living room quickly.

"I can cook my own food you know." He snapped opening the can of redbull he had pulled out of the fridge and chugging it.

"I know, but I was cooking anyways so I figured I'd make enough for two." I said calmly as I switched the burner off and poured the vegetables in with the tofu.

"Well you get paid to watch and take care of the baby, not play around in the kitchen. Instead of playing or properly caring for him you sit him in front of that damn television."

"Excuse me?" I slammed the pot of food on the counter, some of the soy sauce splashed out and onto my hand but I wouldn't show that it burned the hell out of me.

"You heard me." He said before turning down the hall to head back to his office.

"Yeah I get paid to watch and take care of the baby. I've been here for a month and he's maybe sat in front of that television for two hours total. Those videos are good for him and I cleared it with Esme before I purchased them." I said hotly.

"I'm his father." Edward said whirling around and giving me a death glare. "You need to clear things with me not my mother. Television is bad for development."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked.

"Don't raise your voice to me." Edward snapped. "I'm your boss, you work for me."

"Technically I'm on trial Mr. Cullen." His face softened when I didn't use the casual and insisted upon Edward. "You haven't given me any inclination that I've been hired or not and from the way your acting it seems to me that you're just looking for a reason not to hire me."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He defended but refused to look me in the eye.

"Yeah well let's make this easy. I'll be out by morning. Enjoy your meal, I've lost my appetite and it seems that I need to be packing my bags." I untied the apron I had put on and went straight up the stairs because I couldn't see Lucas like this.

Tears poured down my face as I threw all of my stuff in my bags. It might have only been a month since I had started but I already loved the little baby sitting down stairs in my ratty old bean bag chair oblivious to the fact that I wouldn't be seeing him ever again. I was angry that Edward would string me along like this if he knew he wasn't going to hire me as Lucas's nanny. I could have been looking for a job all this time.

I dressed for bed and laid down still upset that it was going to be the last time I slept in the bed.

Sometime later I still hadn't fallen asleep and I could hear something over the baby monitor that I had turned on constantly. Lucas was crying softly and I could hear Edward shush him till he quieted only for him to start wailing louder after a couple of seconds. I cried along with the baby knowing that I was going to miss the first thing I had been responsible for in my life.

After almost an hour I heard Edward sigh in frustration and the sound of the door shutting while Lucas continued to wail over the monitor. At first I thought that Edward was going to leave him by himself when he was so upset, but jumped when there was a small timid knock on my bedroom door.

I was planning on pretending to be asleep but hearing the baby cry called to me. I shuffled up and attempted to wipe my eyes patting my cheeks in an effort to calm down before I opened the door. Edward's tired eyes stared at me.

"I think he's sick." He choked out before rushing back to the nursery with me hot on his tail.

I pulled Lucas into my arms feeling his fever through the thin night clothes Edward had apparently changed him into. His little cheeks were blood red and his eyes were swimming with unshed tears. I placed my cheek against his forehead and hummed to him and his cries of pain dwindled down to a mere whimper before I turned any of my attention to Edward.

He was pacing the floor and gripping the ends of his hair frustratingly.

I spoke softly so I wouldn't upset Lucas. "We need to take him to the hospital."

We probably looked like we were nuts, the three of us. Walking into Forks hospital Edward wearing a stained plain white t-shirt and sleep pants with little scrabble pieces all over them and me in a cami-sol and a pair of knee length sweat pants and my knock off UGGs boots I bought at k-mart. Lucas was bundled up as if it were the middle of December and not the end of August. He had started shivering while Edward grabbed his keys and wallet so I bundled him up in a blanket with a knit cap I found in the bottom drawer of his dresser.

His fever was so high that they took us straight back to an examination room and after a few tests they started pumping him with fluids to fight the severe ear infection he was suffering from. He wouldn't let me lay him on the bed so the nurse instructed me to sit on the bed and undress him down to his diaper. When he yelped in pain when they placed the IV, I cried with him because he was so helpless. It broke my heart that I couldn't do anything for him when he was clearly in so much pain.

Edward stepped outside to call his parents and let them know what was going on as soon as Lucas calmed down and fell into a fitful sleep. I played with the red hair on the top of the baby's head and rubbed his back soothingly to help him relax. I had just started dozing off when the door opened and Edward came back inside.

"Do you want me to take him?" He asked.

"No, it's fine. He's asleep."

"Are you sure? You don't look comfortable." He looked at the way I was sitting.

"My boots are making my feet sweat and I didn't have time to grab socks but I'll survive. He needs to rest and if this is how he's comfortable then it will be worth it."

"I could take them off for you." Edward offered.

"No, I haven't painted my toes in a while and I'm self conscious." I blushed.

"I've seen your toes Bella they're fine." he laughed. "But have it your way. Your feet probably smell anyways."

"Thanks anyways." I said softly remembering that the following morning I would be leaving them. "Um, is it okay if I stay? Just until Lucas is better? You don't even have to pay me, I just want to make sure that he's okay."

"Bella, I was going to come apologize when I put Lucas down for bed. My computer had a glitch and I lost a ten thousand word document that's due the day after tomorrow. I'm sorry I took it out on you because you were the only one around." Edward said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. "I sort of thought you understood that you were hired. I mean it's been a month so I'll take the blame on that as well because I truly thought that you would get the hint. You're good for him. He's calm around you."

As if to add more fuel to Edward's words, Lucas gave a huge snort and turned over. He started drooling and sucking on the skin of my shoulder so I asked Edward to hand me my bag and pulled out Lucas's extra pacifier I kept on me at all times and popped it into his mouth.

"How could I not hire you Bella? You came into our home not knowing anything about babies and took on Lucas like a professional. You had a damn binky in your bag." Edward said softly as he patted Lucas's back, he then looked at me. "If I promise to take a damn chill pill and not take things out on you ,will you please stay?"

"On one condition." I said without missing a beat.

"Name it." he smirked.

"Please let Lucas keep his videos. They are good for babies, and will help him learn his shapes and colors and things. He really likes them and I don't let him watch them long just for a few minutes while I'm cooking. I literally take him everywhere with me Edward. When I do laundry he sits in the basket of fresh clothes. When I go to the bathroom, I sit him on a towel." I blushed at the last tidbit of information that slipped out of my mouth.

Edward chuckled to himself.

"You mean to tell me that I gave you one condition and you wanted something not for yourself, but for Luke? You're remarkable. Of course you can keep the DVD's like I said I was just being a dick, it was like a." he trailed off.

"Alice calls it man-period. PMS of the dicked dudes." Esme came in the door dressed fashionably followed by Carlisle who I'd met after working for Edward for about a week.

"Mom." Edward whined.

"Well you know what they say,.. Menstrual starts with M.E.N." Esme continued as she walked over to the bed. "How is my grandson?"

"Double ear infection. It's so weird because he was fine earlier today while he was watching his Baby Einstein video while I was cooking." I shrugged.

"It's probably because he had his attention on something else. They are pretty sudden." Esme said rubbing the top of Lucas's head lovingly. "Did he show any symptoms? Like pulling his ears or anything?"

"No, we went on a walk today and I even had him in a wind breaker with the hood up because it was windy." I explained. "Are Alice and Jasper behind you? I need to ask her for some help with my move."

"No, Alice gets sick easy and Jasper can't really stand hospitals. She'll be around in a few days." Esme smiled. "So you finally got a clue?"

"Yeah, apparently I'm unobservant." I snorted.

Lucas was discharged as soon as his fever broke and Edward drove the three of us home. We were completely exhausted seeing as it was almost five in the morning. Lucas refused to let me lie him down so with Edward's permission I slept in my bed surrounded by pillows with his tiny warm body pressed against my chest. It took two and a half weeks for Lucas to be almost one hundred percent healthy.

Edward stayed home with the baby while I moved all of my things out of my old apartment and into the bedroom I had been using. We hadn't had another argument since and had fallen into a pretty amazing schedule. Lucas's first birthday was coming up fast so Alice and I had been planning everything for it to make it spectacular for him even though he probably wouldn't remember it. Edward had given us free rein and we had something extravagant planned for the one year old.

That is until Edward came home from a meeting with a frown on his face as he set the table for dinner.

"So how did it go?"

"Shitty." he groaned. "I'm not going to be here for Luke's birthday."

"WHAT?" I yelled.

Lucas attempted to mimic me from his perch in the bean bag chair that was sitting on the floor by the table.

"I have to go to San Antonio to meet with a magazine executive. He might want to sign me on as a writer for his magazine. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can't not go." Edward rubbed his eyes in an effort to shield his emotions from me. "But I can't miss this either. Vicky would hate me forever."

"You're not going to miss his birthday Edward." I said defiantly.

"What are you going to do? Dress up like me and meet with Ben Cheney?" Edward smirked.

"No, we'll throw Lucas's birthday when we get back. Luke and I will come with you." I placed the three cheese lasagna on the table and sat down serving our food before even throwing a glance at the man sitting across the table from me.

**You know the drill.. reviews get sneak peaks.. forwarning.. they might be a day or two late... a girls gotta sleep yah know ;)**

**Love yah lots.. back to Saturday updates next week **

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	10. Plane rides, panic attacks & first words

**Disclaimer: I don't own it.. I do own A BIG FAT CHECK DUE TO MY WORKING MY ASS OFF!**

**ah, yes time isn't something I have a bunch of right now due to my awesome new job but soon I will have a schedule worked out so that I can write.. and maybe update sooner.. TILL THEN I'm SOAKING UP THESE FAT ASS CHECKS.. **

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter ten **

**Bella Swan POV **

"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this." I muttered my mantra as I carried Lucas through security. The mild sedative Alice had provided me was nestled in the locket hanging around my neck just in case I got too panicky.

Edward laughed when I jumped a foot in the air after the metal detector went off when I walked through it. I had never flown and didn't know what to do so I started trying to convince them that I wasn't a terrorist and planning on blowing up the plane. Luckily they didn't freak out at my babbling and tackle me to the ground and arrest me. It was probably Luke. While I was shaking, he sat and babbled playing with his toy airplane that Grampy Carlisle had gifted him before we left. He flirted with anything in a skirt and had the security woman swooning in seconds after my massive mistake. Every couple of seconds I could see Edward smirk or laugh softly to himself at my misfortune.

"I can do this, I can do this." I breathed as we sat in hard plastic chairs waiting for our plane to start boarding.

"Bella calm down. It's just a short flight down to San Antonio." Edward said, the smirk still firmly embedded on his stupid pretty mouth.

"Shut up asshole."

"Oh, Nanny Bella. Such language." Edward took Lucas out of my arms and started talking to him. "We don't say that word, no no no. As soon as we get to the hotel we're going to have to wash Bella's mouth out with soap." He then turned to me with a serious expression. "I can't believe you didn't mention this horrific phobia of flying that you have when I asked how apposed you were to traveling."

I chose to ignore the man child holding the baby next to me and instead focused on my breathing. The whole in, out thing wasn't happening easily for me.

"FLIGHT 1120 IS NOW BOARDING FIRST CLASS, PLEASE HAVE YOUR TICKETS READY." the voice said over the intercom.

"Well, that's us." Edward passed the baby over to me and grabbed the carryon bags.

"Wait? First class?" I said from my seat. "That's expensive."

"No it's not. Ben paid for them." Edward shrugged. "Besides we're going to have Lucas, you'll be happy about having the extra bit of room. Let's go."

When I made no attempt to get up Edward sighed loudly and grabbed my arm pulling me up. He then gripped my free hand and dragged me to the line. Lucas was cooing tiredly and I could tell he was ready for a nap by the way his head kept swaying back and forth on my shoulder.

Edward had just handed the attendant our tickets when I yanked my hand out of his and started backing up.

"I can't do this, I can't do this."

"Bella come on. It will be fine." he chuckled.

"I can't. I don't want to die. I've seen Final Destination. What if I wake up and we're sitting back in the kitchen eating our breakfast or something and then death follows us?" I started hyperventilating and patting the hell out of Lucas's back. "Oh god oh god. I can't breathe. Shit."

"Sir, I can't let your wife on the plane until she calms down." The attendant said quietly as she ushered the people behind us forward.

"Oh, n-" I made an attempt to correct her assumptions but Edward cut me off.

"She'll be fine, we just need a minute." he snapped before turning to me with a pleading look. "Bella this meeting is really important and I've been looking forward to spending Lucas's birthday with him. Please calm down and come with me?"

"I can't. I'm deathly afraid of heights and this. This isn't good." I gasped.

"Bella. Look at me." Edward instructed and I obeyed. His green eyes stared straight into my soul as his free hand caressed my cheek. This intimate gesture was somewhat of a surprise, we never touched, and that was a silent law of the house. Both Alice and Esme had started picking on me over the sexual chemistry and tension that supposedly oozed from the house.

In truth it's not like there had been any naked encounters or accidents that involved he or I walking in on the other changing. Hell I had never seen him without his shirt, but he'd seen my lacy power bra. So it wasn't as if we were fighting the urge to jump each other's bones at any given second. I'm not saying I didn't find my boss extremely attractive because I do and I've recently found myself thinking about him in a non authoritative way. I'll even admit to it that sometimes I found myself wanting to be a family with Edward and Lucas in a different way that didn't include me getting a pay check every month for my duties.

The only thing keeping that from happening would be Edward and the fact that he only looked at me as his employee. Until now that is.

His hand trailed down the side of my face and for a second I thought he was going for the girls but instead he popped open the locket. He then placed the pill between my parted lips and my heart fell into my stomach. I immediately started to chastise myself for being so stupid in my thoughts.

"Swallow that." he whispered closing my mouth with his thumb.

Easier said than done. I'm not a professional pill popper so swallowing a pill with a dry mouth because of my panic attack was difficult but somehow I managed to do so without choking to death.

"THIS IS THE FINAL CALL FOR FIRST CLASS FLIGHT 1120" the robotic voice said.

"Just keep your eyes closed until we got on the plane and seated. Alice said that that will kick in almost immediately so relax and everything will be okay." Edward said softly taking Lucas out of my arms and balancing both of the bags on one shoulder before leading me up to the attendant yet again.

As instructed I kept my eyes closed as he led me through the gate and onto the plane so I was able to avoid the scrutiny of judgmental people. I sat in a plush chair and opened my eyes just as Edward plopped Lucas into my lap and put our bags in the overhead compartment. Lucas leaned against my chest and sighed so I took the small blanket out of my purse and draped it over us while Edward got situated in the seat next to me, the window seat.

Before I knew it we were in the air and I was high as a kite, pun intended. Lucas was drooling on my shoulder while I leaned against Edward talking his ear about anything and everything. We had just finished a great debate of Coke vs. Pepsi when I noticed that he was smirking again.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"That I need to ask Alice for a refund for that sedative because instead of knocking you out for an hour or two it's turned you into a chatter box with an attention deficit disorder." he laughed.

"Well fine then. I'll just sit here and shut up then." I huffed.

"No, I like this version of you."

"As opposed to the sober responsible caregiver to your child?" I joked.

"No, that's not what I meant. I'm just saying when you're in nanny mode every focus and conversation is based on something Lucas related. It's nice to talk to you about something as trivial as soda's with you." he shrugged. "And the fact that you're throwing yourself at me is definitely different and new."

"I'm not throwing myself at you." I snapped causing Lucas to stir. "Your just squishy and warm and you sort of smell nice."

"Ah, another good thing about that sedative. It's like a truth serum for you or something." Edward laughed loudly.

"Yep, not talking anymore." I blushed and ducked my head under the blanket.

I closed my eyes in attempt to go to sleep but the blanket slipped off of my head and the light from the window was right in my eye. I opened my eyes and realized everyone was standing up.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Flight's over. We're getting ready to exit the plane. We were wrong about that sedative huh?" Edward laughed.

"Wait. What?" I sat up without jostling Lucas too much.

"You slept the last hour of the flight after ducking away so I let you. You woke up right after we landed, so great timing." he chuckled.

We made it to the hotel a surprising two hours later after finally getting a baby safe rental car. I was still groggy from the sedative and Lucas was cranky and hungry so we decided to just get room service and hang out in the room. The following day, Lucas's birthday to be exact was going to be hectic to say the least. With the celebrating and Edward's very important meeting he still hadn't told me anything about because he didn't want to jinx it, I was going to be a very busy woman.

We were staying for three days so that Edward could finish the final stages if he was hired. If not it would turn into a small vacation to cope with the loss of the opportunity. Either way Lucas and I were going to have fun whether or not Edward got the job. And seeing as it was his birthday, that's all that matters.

"So how are you feeling druggy?" Edward asked as he sat my bag by the door to mine and Lucas's room.

It was decided that since I was the nanny that Lucas and I would share a room and Edward would occupy the one across the hall. We would do the partying and spending time together in my room because all of Lucas's things would be handy and Edward could lay out his suit and paperwork without worrying about little sticky hands getting to them.

"I'm a little groggy and hungry." I shrugged. "So food is definitely in order then a nap."

"Okay. I'm sure Luke would like some food too." Edward kissed the top of Lucas's head and unlocked our room for us. "Come knock or call the room or my cell when you two are settled and we'll order one of everything on the room service menu."

"Yes sir." I saluted.

It took me ten minutes to get our clothing situated while Lucas munched on a teething cookie on the bed. I wanted to take a quick shower but with Lucas I had to result to wiping the both of us down with a warm wash cloth. I had just changed Lucas into his pajamas when he did something that surprised and scared the hell out of me at the same time. His clear blue eyes stared up at me and he gave me a gummy smile before blurting out a word that terrified me possibly more than the whole flying on a plane ever did.

"Mama."

"No no sweet boy. I'm Bella." I cooed as I backed away from him covering my mouth with my hand as my eyes filled with tears.

I didn't know what to do. The first thing that popped in my head was a scenario that involved Edward hearing Lucas saying that and thinking that I was a psycho trying to steal his kid or something. Every crazy thought that went through my mind at the moment resulted in me getting fired. So I did my best to change it.

"Bella. Bella." I said over and over again pointing to myself.

Lucas's tiny bottom lip quivered as he started to cry and hold his arms out for me to pick him up. And he kept saying that word.

"Mama, mama."

"No Lucas." I said sternly. "Bella."

My attitude only made him cry harder and louder. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. I had been trying to get him to say Daddy because it was important to me and now this. His first word is momma and he doesn't even have one.

I sat on the bed and put my head in my hands trying to come up with a solution. Lucas continued to cry and eventually crawled into my lap hugging my body close to him.

We sat there for a couple of minutes crying to each other until someone knocked on the door. I cradled Lucas in my arms and opened the door forgetting that that was one of the number one things not-to-do when staying in a hotel. Luckily it was Edward's smiling face on the other side of the door.

"Hey it's been almost an hour so I wanted to check and see if you two fell asleep." He joked before taking in our appearances. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I um forgot to pack Lucas's favorite blanket he likes to have when he sleeps and we both were upset about it." I lied.

"Oh, I didn't know he had a favorite blanket." Edward's brow furrowed in confusion before he gave me a serious look. "Are you sure you're alright? You look really upset. So does Luke."

"Yeah we're fine. A little tired and starving but other than that we're fine." I stepped back and gestured for him to come into the room. "Let's order some food."

Everything was going smoothly until Edward offered to take Lucas from me so that I could make him a bottle seeing as I knew where everything was. I passed him the baby and grabbed one of the bottles before moving to the bathroom to mix it over the sink when I heard it. It had almost the same affect on me as the first time.

"Mama."

Except this time when I heard a gasp emit from Edward I wanted to cry for a whole new reason.

Vicky.

**OH SNAP!**

**REVIEW FOR THE LOVE OF PEEN AND LUCAS**

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	11. Edward Cullen Makes a Mistake or Does He

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**I'm so sorry I know it's a week late.. I can't even blame it on my new job... I was just lazy and super distracted.. I also found the wonderful awesomeness that is Dave And Busters.. I'm an addict and can now relate to the people that come into my establishment to gamble away all of their bill money lol.. But I love you all so here you go :)**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Eleven rewritten **

**Edward Cullen POV **

"Mama."

The word rang loud and clear through the room. Lucas was clearly talking about Bella. He held his arms up and followed her with his eyes every where she went the second he was placed in my arms. My breath hitched and my palms started to sweat. I was frozen in shock.

"Mama."

There it was again, as he started to become more and more distressed. It was then that I realized I was gripping him tighter than intended. I loosened my hold on him and he kept crying out with that word.

"Mamamamama."

I couldn't talk. All I could think about was Vicky. It was only natural that Lucas would start calling Bella his mother. He was a smart baby and she was the permanent female figure in his life. She had been with him every day for over three months and he was just a baby.

Would Vicky be mad that her son was calling another woman momma?

Would she be pissed that the other woman was his nanny?

Where the hell had he picked that word up from?

Luke attempted to get down from my lap but I held onto him earning a few stubborn grunts of disproval. He continued to say the word over and over again growing more and more disgruntled by the minute. He thrashed wildly against me and I had to be careful because I didn't want to end up with a fat lip or a black eye from a flying baby limb.

"Shh, Lucas. Calm down." Bella said calmly as she exited the bathroom holding Luke's bottle in her shaking hands.

Her face held the most guilt ridden expression I had ever seen before and as she handed me the bottle, I could tell she was trying her hardest not to cry. She sat on the side of the bed farthest from where I sat with Luke at the table and refused to look our way. Lucas had stopped saying the word but continued to cry for Bella's attention so I decided to come out of my stunned silence.

"Bella he really wants you." I said softly holding him towards her.

She turned toward me but wouldn't look me in the face as she took him from me. As soon as Lucas was settled in her arms sucking on his bottle happily they both seemed to relax simultaneously. We remained quiet until my stomach decided to make itself known.

"We should order some room service before it gets too late." I said coughing nervously as I grabbed the menu off the table and leafed through it. "What do you feel like? It looks like they have a little bit of everything."

"I'm not hungry." Bella mumbled sadly.

"Bella you have to eat something." I pushed knowing that she hadn't eaten a very large breakfast and then downing the sedative couldn't be good for her.

"I'd like to be left alone Edward. Lucas is about to go to sleep for the night and I'd just like to be left alone." she sniffled. "Please."

"I can't do that." I said defiantly. "As much as we would both like to ignore the giant talking elephant in the room, we can't. I'd rather talk about this. Please."

"Are you mad? I'm sorry. I wasn't teaching him this. I wanted him to call you daddy. That was the goal. His first word was supposed to be daddy, or dadda. He just said that for the first time before you knocked on the door. That was supposed to be his first word and now. I'm so sorry Edward." she began to panic. Lucas sensing her distress held his bottle in one hand and reached the other up to stroke her cheek with a lazy milk-drunk smile as if to comfort her. "I don't want you to think that I tried to sabotage this. I would never do this. I'm not a psycho or anything. Please don't fire me because I love Lucas with all my heart and I can't be away from you. I mean him. I can't be away from him."

The end of her rant caused my heart to seize and then drop into my gut all in a matter of seconds.

Over the time that had passed since I hired Bella to be Lucas's nanny I was falling somewhat in 'like' with her. I couldn't call it love…yet, because that would be ridiculous. Not one night had passed without saying goodnight to her, and not a morning spent without a good morning. Sometimes I questioned the feelings that I was beginning to have for her and it had been brought up in more than one or two conversations with my mother and sister in law.

When I argued that I was only feeling this way because Bella was helping me out with Lucas, Alice told me that she noticed a spark of something on Bella's first day. Whatever that means.

My mother told me to give it time and that if it was supposed to work out in the end, that it would. I can still picture the teary eyed expression she had on her face before she burst into tears over my actually being interested in the opposite sex. Shall we say awkward?

Alice told me to walk up to Bella one night after she'd put Lucas to bed and kiss the shit out of her. I'm pretty sure in her fucked up little brain of hers she already saw Bella and I in a serious relationship. It wouldn't surprise me if she had a spiral notebook filled with plans for the rest our lives.

Due to my morals and the way I was brought up to be a gentleman I decided to ignore Shorty and follow my mother's advice.

One night I was heading down the hall to get something from the kitchen when I stumbled on Lucas and Bella in the living room. Bella was feeding Lucas a bottle and talking to him quietly while the TV stayed off. I had felt like I was intruding and my assumptions were brought to fruition when Bella leaned down and kissed Lukes head whispering her love for him. Like a coward I ran back upstairs and away from the situation feeling guilty that I had allowed someone to get so close to Luke so soon and also feeling jealous that her feelings remained solely for him. After hearing her admission I started to feel a pull to her that I couldn't control but tried to bury deep inside for fear that I would ruin everything. I tried to keep my emotions in check when she did anything remotely motherly for Luke and that happened often seeing as she was his caretaker. I found myself loving when she cooked dinner for the two of us and we would sit at the dinner table with Luke in between spooning baby food and soft edibles from our plates into his mouth. It was so family-like that it scared me. A small part of my mind was trying to warn me that I was acting irrationally, too fast if you will.

For a split second during Bella's rant I had thought that maybe she might have shared some of the feelings that I had for her but she shot them down to quickly breaking my heart in the process.

With a heavy heart I cleared my throat and put on my best sympathetic smile I could manage.

"Bella I would never, ever believe that you would do something like that. You have a pretty wild imagination eh?" I joked but neither one of us found any humor in my words. "It's obvious that Lucas has put two and two together. He sees me with my mother and has obviously put you in the place of his mother."

You don't even have to say it. That was a shitty excuse and I know it. It wasn't as if I followed my mother around calling my mom, momma over and over again in front of Luke. Or maybe I had without even realizing it.

"I know Edward." Bella snorted and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt. "That's just it though. He's putting me in the placement as his mother. I'm just the nanny. I don't have the requirements to fill in that role."

"Do you love him?" I asked.

"Without a doubt more than my own life." she blushed. "And I'm slowly realizing that that isn't proper for a nanny."

"Than that's all that matters. We'll get him to stop somehow if it's making you uncomfortable."

"That's just it Edward." Bella sobbed ducking her head into Lucas. "It doesn't make me uncomfortable. It makes me proud, that he would think that I was his mother and that scares me."

"You don't think that it scares me?" I stood up and ran a hand through my hair. "I never asked for this. This wasn't how it was supposed to end up. I was supposed to take Luke off of their hands for a night every once and a while just to help them get some alone time, not take on the responsibility of raising him. I was supposed to be Uncle Edward not his dad. And now I am."

Bella remained quiet during my rant and Lucas had managed to fall asleep so she rested him between some pillows before turning to me and sighing.

"I never asked to become a nanny. Sometimes stuff happens for a reason and you have to play with the hand god dealt you." she shrugged.

"So what do we do?" I asked sitting back down. "About him calling you momma?"

"I think that's your decision to make Edward." Bella said sadly her eyes filling with tears yet again. She stood up and walked over to the window peering out. Texas was a hell of a lot sunnier than Forks. The way the rays of light streaming through the window were hitting her face as the sun was going down is something I will never forget. She had an angelic look to her, she turned to me and then looked away before speaking. "I'm just the nanny Edward. You need to think about what's going to happen when he gets older. How I will look to him, thinking that I'm his mother. When he goes to school and realizes that things are different for other children's families. What's going happen when you start dating and fall in love? It would confuse the hell out of him. My feelings have nothing to do with this Edward."

I watched her fall apart with her head rested against the window. Her sobs tore my heart in two so I did the only thing I could think of that would comfort her and get her to see reason.

Without so much as a second thought I stood up and walked over to her, pulling her into my arms in the first hug I had ever shared with a woman that wasn't related by blood or marriage to me. Even growing up I considered Vicky my sister so she didn't count. Bella fit in my arms in a different way that my mother, Alice or Vicky ever did. When she wrapped her arms around my torso it felt like we were two pieces of a puzzle that didn't look like they would fit but were perfect together. Her warm body pressed against me and I could smell the cocoa butter body wash she had mentioned she preferred.

"You mean everything Bella. To Lucas and to me." I hugged her a little tighter as I confessed my deepest secrets. "I feel drawn to you in a way I can't explain. I just know that it's totally different from anything I've ever experienced."

"What does that mean?" she sniffed.

Instead of answering her I did something that surprised the both of us. I leaned down and captured her lips with my own. It was awkward, our first kiss, my first kiss ever. It took a second for Bella to break out of the frozen state of shock I had evidentially put her in but once she came back to reality, she responded. Her lips were softer than they look and warm, they tasted like salt but I'm sure that it was from all of the tears shed previously.

When we finally pulled away for air, I leaned my forehead against hers. "Wow."

"Diddo." Bella breathed. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to. I've wanted to for quite a while now." I confessed pulling a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hmm." she blushed pulling away and checking on Lucas. "How about that meal? I could go for some cinnamon pancakes and a fruit bowl."

"Let's see if they have those items on the menu." I said trying to hide my confusion. Her actions were as if she didn't want to talk about what had just transpired, when all I wanted to do was hold her close and maybe kiss her some more. My logical side told me to go with the flow for fear that I would ruin it. The everything that my motherhad been warning me about ruining.

Unfortunately the hotel's room service didn't serve breakfast at all hours of the day, so Bella settled on a grilled cheese with sliced tomatoes and her fruit bowl while I got a small black olive pizza and a bowl of mashed potatoes for Luke in case he woke up any time soon.

Bella wasn't exactly talkative while we waited for our food and once it arrived we sat on almost opposite sides of the room. Every now and then I would catch her eye as she munched on the slices of tomato or the strawberries from her fruit bowl. Each time she would flush scarlet and turn her attention back to her plate or stare at Luke while he slept.

For being absolutely starving before everything went down, I barely managed to down a slice of my pizza before excusing myself and going back over to my hotel room. Bella only nodded and offered to throw away my garbage for me but didn't even walk me to the door. I walked over to the bed and kissed Lucas's cheek before leaving fighting the strong urge to do the same for her at the same time.

My room was clean. Taking a peek inside one would think that the person staying in it was suffering from a severe case of OCD. There were no teething toys laying on the nightstand or diapers spilling out of a diaper bag sitting by the bathroom. No beautiful woman sitting and watching the perfect child sleeping in the middle of a mound of pillows on the bed that they would share.

My room felt lonely.

I laid out the clothes I planned on wearing for my meeting the following morning and sat on the plush bed not bothering with getting under the covers. My mind was racing with thoughts of how royally fucked up I had caused this situation to become. Bella was clearly uncomfortable with my advances. That was evident in the way she behaved after I practically mauled her. She probably just acted as a partner in the kiss to stick around for Lucas.

I was a monster.

A dickhead.

An asshole.

I had just started dozing off when there was a small timid knock on the door. I peered through the peep hole and was confused when I saw that it was Bella. I straightened myself up before opening the door.

"Bella? Is everything alright?" I asked taking in her nervous form.

"Yeah, umm no. I just wanted to." she paused and began to worryher bottom lip with her teeth.

"Is Luke okay?"

"He's fine. I just. I'm sorry I was acting so weird after the...you know." she blushed. "I was a little shocked and caught completely off-guard."

"I need to apologize." I started.

"No, no you don't. Because I've wanted to do that too, for a long time. You just beat me to it." she said before throwing her arms around me and pulling my face down to hers.

Our lips met with a loud smack.

It didn't go farther than that.

Bella pulled away, gasping for air and wiping her lips on the back of her hand before looking me dead in the eye.

"I quit."

**Oh snap ;)**

**before I receive an onslaught of death threats.. the wait for the next chapter will not be as retartedly long as the wait for this chapter was**

**oh yeah, does anyone have any book recomendations they can give me? at work we aren't allowed to have computers or cellphones but my boos okayed my itouch so I mostly read ebooks on there that V has found for me.. Fanfiction isn't cutting it for me and I like the supernatural stuff just as much as the romancy stuff, I also like drama.. you know what.. just recomend it and I'll check it out ... I don't think things with sequals though sooo if you could help me out I'll love you even more than I already do **

**review ;)**

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	12. Late night calls and mashed potatoes

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**PLEASE READ PLEASE READ PLEASE READ PLEASE READ PLEASE READ PLEASE READ**

**Alright I hope I got everyone's attention. I'm sorry the updates are infrequent. March is a busy month for me at work and.. I've decided to write a sequel to Bella the Babysitter so I have to reread and make it possible.. I know Ashley the girl that said she'd never write a sequel cause it ruins stories... is going to give it a go and make it not suck... I loved Lucas entirely too much and couldn't focus on the other stories I was writing until I came back... that also means that I wont be updating as frequent as I was because I have to refinalize everything I've already prewritten.. boo. but hopefully the news will make you giddy **

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter twelve **

**Bella Swan POV **

"I quit."

"No Bella. Please don't do this." Edward panicked. "Lucas needs you. We need you."

"Edward."

"I promise I'll stop. We'll just pretend like it didn't even happen." he continued a guilty expression taking over his entire face.

"Edward." I tried again.

"I can't let you do this. There has to be a way for me to take it back." His hand went straight for his hair, pulling the ends roughly in frustration. "I'm sorry. I'll give you a raise. I'll build a separate apartment on the land for you if you're uncomfortable with living in the same house with me. Pleas-"

I clamped my hand over his mouth. "Will you shut the fuck up and let me talk?" I asked calmly.

Edward nodded his head.

"I've never done this before. Quit a job I mean." I removed my hand when he made no move to interrupt me. "I've had plenty of jobs more than one that lasted only a day if that but I've never quit one. Ever." I took a deep breath.

"You made me do this."

"Bella p-" he stopped short when I raised my hand to cover his mouth again.

"I like you Edward. More than I'm willing to admit right now. With that being said I have always followed my strict rule of never dating my employer. I refuse to start now."

I stepped back and let that information sink in watching his face contort in a range of emotions. Landing on surprise mixed with a goofy ass grin.

"Does this mean what I think it means?" he choked out.

"Depends on how you swing it. I better get back before Lucas wakes up." I held up the baby monitor I'd brought with me in emphasis. "See you in the morning, Edward. You can take the two of us out for Luke's birthday before you leave for your meeting."

And with that I turned around, entered my room and shut the door. The last thing I saw was Edward's still frozen form standing in his doorway across the hall.

Smiling, I lay down on the bed and pulled Luke's body close to me. He stirred in his sleep and burrowed into my shoulder. I played with the end of his short red curls at the nape of his neck and thought about what I had just done. Quitting was the only solution I had came up with after Edward excused himself to go to sleep.

I had looked from the door to the baby sleeping on the bed and back to the door again about a billion times going over and over in my mind about what had transpired. And the second I came to my conclusion I scrambled to set up the baby monitor and made my way across the hall. This kiss, was pretty much an unplanned surprise for the both of us.

Edward's panic stricken face when I pulled away and said those two words is something I will never forget. I'm pretty sure I looked that way when Lucas called me momma earlier.

Could it have only been two and a half hours prior that my world turned upside down and then right side up with a single word?

Was it even right side up again?

Could I be getting ahead of myself?

Sighing I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I could feel a headache coming on and wanted more than anything to get up and call Rose. She would help me in this situation. Know what to do.

Hell, she'd probably tell me I was fucking stupid and that I wasn't moving back into her and Emmett's love nest. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned their spare bedroom into a sex room. I had barely seen them in the three months since I started working for Edward and it wasn't the fact that I had an infant strapped to my hip. They were growing closer and closer, I saw that every time we did by chance get together. I guess you could say that I was sort of jealous after the last visit that Lucas and I paid to the apartment, I realized that they had no intentions of my ever moving back in with them. They barely paid attention to the two of us and had moved into the room that Rose and I used to share because it was the larger of the two.

But I sure could use a female friend right now.

My hand reached for my cell phone on its own accord and I was dialing the familiar phone number before I even realized I was doing.

"Hi Bella. I had a feeling you would be calling me soon." Alice's chirpy voice rang through the telephone. "I didn't think it would be tonight, you know at like ten o'clock but here you are. What can I do you for?"

Her play with words even at ten o'clock at night, after the day I've had caused me to smile.

"I uh, just wanted to talk. I didn't even realize it was this late. Lucas is asleep and I'm sort of bored." I explained. "Oh yeah, I need to thank you for the sedative because I sort of freaked out before we even got on the plane."

"I knew you would. That's why I gave you two." she giggled. "If you're so bored why don't you go get Boringward and play some cards or something?"

"Yeah, um I think he might be asleep now." I stammered a blush quickly flushing my entire face.

"It's ten o'clock. Since when does Edward go to sleep at ten?" she asked quizzically.

"I don't know. He has an important meeting tomorrow." I defended. "He's actually the reason I called you."

"Oh and the reason couldn't be that you love me so fucking much? No it has to be because of my dope of a brother in law. What did he do this time. Lay it on me?" she sighed.

"Well, he laid one on me." if possible my skin was an even darker shade of red, I could feel the blush traveling down my neck.

"HE WHAT? HE FUCKING HIT YOU? I SWEAR TO GOD! WHAT HOTEL ARE YO-"

"Alice. He didn't hit me you retard. He kissed me."

"Goddamn Bella." she breathed in relief. "I've already packed an outfit in my purse so that I could fly down there and kick his ass."

"It's not needed." I giggled.

"Well, how was it? Are you finally together? Did Lucas see it? Tell me. Tell me. Tell me." I could hear the springs protesting on her side of the phone and realized she was bouncing on her bed.

"Good, really good. No and no." I simply answered.

"You're not together? What the hell? That means Edward didn't listen to a word Mama Es said. She's going to be so mad." Alice sang songed like a little kid and I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, continue. Please."

"Because you asked so nicely." I laughed. "So it was really awkward and stuff and I started to think that the only reason he did it was to keep me from quitting after Lucas called me momma."

Before I could continue Alice emitted a high pitched squeal so loud that Lucas stirred and he was a foot away from the phone. I zoned out for a second waiting for my ears to stop ringing and when I placed the phone back to my head, it was quiet.

"Alice? Are you there? Did I break you?" I asked hesitantly.

"Um, no. I was just um." she said distractedly.

I could hear rustling in the background and Jasper's southern accent rang through the phone. "Ali baby why are you texting on my cell and talking on yours?"

"WHO ARE YOU TEXTING ALICE?" I panicked.

"Oh nobody. Just Esme… she asked me for a muffin recipe and I just remembered I needed to send it to her." she mumbled.

"You're lying." I said dryly rubbing my forehead in exasperation. "I can't believe I called you of all people."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alice asked hotly.

"You're in with his mother and shit Alice that's what I mean." I snapped sliding out from under Lucas and hiding away in the bathroom. "You're telling her about this right now aren't you?"

"No. Y-maybe." she said coyly.

"Alice." I gasped. "Please stop it. Cancel the damn text please. Goddamn it. Seriously Alice."

"Okay okay calm your ass down. Take a fucking chill pill. I won't. Jesus."

I sighed in relief. "As I was saying there was a bunch of drama that ensued after that. I got upset and he kissed me. Then it got weird and he went back to his room."

"So you just left it like that? Why didn't you admit you're passionately in love with each other? The entire fucking world believes it and the both of you are too blind to realize it. Shitballs." she huffed.

I could hear Jasper trying to calm her down but to no avail.

"Well after he left I got to thinking. I've always held a strict rule of no dating my fellow employees and or employers so I jumped up and ran across the hal-"

"Aww, this is sooo romantic." Alice drawled.

"And knocked on the door and he came out. I kissed him and then I quit."

"Wait what?" Alice deadpanned.

"I quit." I replied.

"You can't quit. What the fuck Bella?" I could hear more rustling around and Jasper ask her what she was doing. "I'm packing my bag again and flying down there and kicking your brother's nanny's ass for being stupid."

"Alice." I laughed.

"WHAT?" she snapped.

"I quit because I don't want to go any further in this, whatever we have going on while still being Edward Cullen's nanny. You just said it yourself." I explained.

"Oh, Jesus Christ." she huffed.

"Yeah." I yawned. "So, I just needed someone to talk to. You're probably not the best choice but you were all I had at the moment. I just sort of left him standing in front of his room."

"Just standing there?" she asked.

"Yeah I think he was in shock or something. It could have been something I said." I said.

"Shit. Jaz baby call your brother. If he's the lame ass I think he is, I'm sure he's still standing in the hall." Alice laughed.

I opened the bathroom door and peeked out to check on Lucas right as he started to wake up. I pulled the mashed potatoes out of the mini fridge and popped them in the microwave while he popped his head up. All of the hair on the right side of his head was sticking straight up with sweat as he looked around tiredly.

"I gotta go. Lucas just woke up and I'm sure he's going to be hungry." I yawned again as Lucas's tiny lip started to quiver when he didn't see me in his direct line of vision.

"Mama?" he cried.

"Aww, okay take care of my nephew. Call me tomorrow after you guys wake up. I want to wish him a happy birthday." Alice instructed. "Bye bye Bella."

She hung up before I could say goodbye and Lucas was now trying to crawl across the bed towards me. I checked the mashed potatoes and sat on the end of the bed propping Luke up against a pillow so that I could feed him. After he ate half of the bowl he decided to play around for a little while despite my desperate need for sleep. We played a long and exciting game of peek a boo before his head started to bob again and he crawled into my lap.

With a quick look at the clock I realized that it was almost one o'clock in the morning.

"Happy birthday baby boy." I whispered kissing the apple of his warm cheek.

"Mama." he murmured sleepily.

I looked up at the ceiling wondering if Vicky and James were watching.

"I really hope you like me because I have every intention on staying in their lives unless they send me away." I murmured right before I fell asleep holding the most important person in my life close to my heart while the other slept across the hall.

**I love when I reread a chapter I've written and it's like sickly sweet or something.. it's like another person wrote it.. **

**I love you all and hope your happy about the decision to write a sequel**

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	13. Luke's birthday and an important meeting

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**I'M NOT DEAD JUST BUSY.. ALL MY DAYS ARE MIXING UP AND I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT WAS SATURDAY LAST WEEK UNTIL THE MONDAY AFTER IF THAT MADE ANY SENSE. **

**The Chapter was supposed to be out on Saturday but I couldn't get passed the fanfiction bullshit to update.. fortunately a wonderful author by the name of **_**rbsschess was **_**able to guide me in bypassing the error message. Go check out her story House of Hope because if it wasn't on my favorites and I didn't notice that she updated this chapter wouldn't be here today :) I also got called into work this morning on my day off.. and am in immense pain (health related) so I decided that if my manager can't work an entire shift to save his life I can still me some wipheeey (that's for you V cause I miss your face) and update this story ;)  
**

**LOVE YOUR FACES**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter thirteen **

**Edward Cullen POV **

"_I like you Edward. More than I'm willing to admit right now. With that being said, I have always followed my strict rule of never dating my employer. I refuse to start now." she said stepping back._

"_Does this mean what I think it means?" I choked out unable to hide the stupid foolish grin on my face. _

"_Depends on how you swing it. I better get back before Lucas wakes up." she held up a baby monitor I didn't realize she had. "See you in the morning Edward. You can take the two of us out for Luke's birthday before you leave for your meeting." _

I watched her turn and walk back into her room closing the door softly behind her.

She wanted to date me. That was obviously the reason behind her quitting. She had kissed me and wanted to do that more often. Thoughts of the three of us, Bella, Lucas and I began to play through my mind.

Christmas morning, Lucas sitting in Bella's lap as he tore open a giant box wrapped in foil while I toyed with a video camera trying to capture the moment on film.

Easter afternoon, the three of us sitting surrounded by my family as we enjoyed Easter brunch at my parents house. Lucas was covered with what looked like mashed potatoes and macaroni in cheese while Bella attempted to wipe his hands and the rest of the family including me laughed at the spectacle.

I was brought out of my ridiculous mental fantasies by my phone ringing inside my room. Shaking my head I walked inside the room and picked up the phone, sliding it open right before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?" I greeted.

"Hey brother, do you have any idea why my wife is currently on the phone with your nanny?" Jasper asked.

"Umm, no." I mumbled.

"Well she is. Jumping up and down from the bed to the dresser. Warring with herself whether or not she is going to fly down there and kick one of your asses." he chuckled.

"Why?"

"I don't fucking know. That's why I'm calling you dumbass."

"Oh well, I don't know either."

"Ask him about Lucas calling Bella mommy." Alice prompted, her voice ringing clear through the phone.

"Lucas called Bella mommy?" Jasper asked.

"Yes, it was an accident though." I sighed. "Listen ask whatever it is you called about or hand Alice the phone so that she can ask. I have a meeting tomorrow and Lucas's birthday to celebrate and would like to get some sleep."

"Yeah, well Alice just wanted me to call you so that you wouldn't stand in the hallway looking like a douche or whatever." he chuckled again. "So the only question I have is are you safely in your room and out of the hall?"

"Yes."

"Then that's all." Jasper drawled tiredly. "Now we can all get some sleep."

"No, no no. Ask him if he's going to make a move?" Alice squealed on the other end of the phone.

"Say goodnight to Alice for me brother, and good luck getting that thing to sleep." I laughed.

"Hardy har har. Very funny. Goodnight brother." Jasper said while Alice yelled in the background wanting to know what was funny.

"Goodnight." I sang sliding my phone shut and tossing it on the bed.

After making sure everything was set up the following morning including my wake up call I slid beneath the cold sheets of my bed and allowed my mind to take me back to the fantasies.

Luke turning five, walking into Kindergarten while I comforted a crying Bella.

Bella, Luke and I having a lazy Sunday cuddled together on the living room couch. Luke giggling when Bella tossed popcorn in my hair.

The next thing I knew the hotel phone was ringing. I reached over without looking and picked it up.

"_Mr. Cullen. This is Greg at the front desk just calling to give you the wake up call you requested." _the cheerful voice greeted.

"Yes, erm thanks." I grumbled clearing the sleep out of my throat as best as I could.

I hung up on his overly cheerful voice and rolled over rubbing my eyes as I stretched.

I dressed in some casual clothes before meticulously checking over my documents for the meeting I was going to attend in a few short hours and walking across the hall. I could hear rustling going on inside and Bella's voice loudly singing 'Happy Birthday' while Lucas squealed in delight. After knocking a few times I figured I would just use the key, thankful that Bella had insisted that I have one because she tended to lose them.

I smiled taking in the scene in front of me. Bella wearing a terry cloth halter dress with a tie-dye pattern all over it was kneeling on the bed, her hair falling all over Lucas's red face while she blew on his belly. Every time she came up for air she would belt out another line of 'Happy Birthday' before ducking back down earning another loud squealish giggle from the birthday boy.

"HAPPY BIIIIRTHDAAAY TOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOOU!" she sang loudly and completely out of tune while she tickled his armpits.

I figured that it was a good time to make my presence known and started to clap. Bella jumped a foot off the bed almost falling off in surprise while Lucas sat up laughing at her acting goofy.

"Jesus you scared the crap out of me." she held her chest as if trying to slow her heart rate from the outside.

"Sorry, I did knock but you two were being so loud. I just used the key." I held it up.

"That's okay. I was just singing happy birthday to Lukey here. He probably doesn't understand a word I'm saying but I wanted to make him happy and if acting like an idiot does that. Then so be it." Bella blushed pulling Lucas up to his feet.

The second he was standing he started jumping up and down. He was getting so big. It's hard to believe that a year ago today, I was sitting in the waiting room at Forks' memorial waiting for James to come out holding a blue bundle with a huge grin plastered on his face. It was as if it was yesterday that he placed the swaddled newborn in my arms and then led me back to the room where Vicky was resting. It was there that they told me I would be his godfather, and I laughed. If only I had known.

"You alright Edward?" Bella asked handing Lucas over to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I leaned down and kissed Lucas's cheek. "Happy birthday buddy."

"Gwabba." he mumbled sucking on his fist.

"Someone's starving and I'm not talking about the cannibal in your arms." Bella smiled rubbing her stomach. "Let me get my shoes on and we'll be ready to go."

She started to walk past me towards her flip flops but I grabbed her arm. "Good morning." I said softly.

"Good morning." she said blushing a little before popping up on her tip toes and giving me a quick and surprising peck on my lips before slipping her shoes on. "Let's go eat."

Lucas bounced from my arms to Bella's the entire trip down to the hotel's five star restaurant. He started to think it was a game after I handed him over to her to tie my shoe in the elevator and she handed him back to me when I situated myself. His giggle was worth the muscle tiring game of pass-the-baby we played.

Once we were seated at a small table and handed our menus Lucas became and remained the sole focus. Bella ordered pancakes, an order of grits, oatmeal and a bowl of applesauce so that she could share with Lucas. I opted for the breakfast quiche. Bella scrunched her nose at my choice in disdain and I felt badly that I wasn't following her strict vegetarianism. But old habits die hard and I was having issues with letting my eggs go.

"What?" I asked slicing up my breakfast before delving in.

"Nothing." she grimaced spooning food into Lucas's eager and grunting mouth.

"It doesn't look like nothing." I smiled as Lucas squished his food out of his mouth between his gums and laughed.

"Hmm, you'll figure it out soon enough." Bella shrugged cutting up her pancakes while she expertly fed our little piggy.

Our.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said." she smiled wickedly sending a coy wink my way before turning back to the task at hand.

Lucas ended up with grits in his hair and somehow managed to get applesauce in his ear by the time we made it back up to our rooms. I was going to get ready for my meeting while Bella and Lucas walked around San Antonio like true tourists. She had even bought him an 'I heart Texas' shirt at the gift shop this morning.

I opened the door for her so that she wouldn't get Lucas's mess everywhere now that she was covered in his breakfast as well.

"Thanks. Come by before you leave for your meeting okay?" she shifted Lucas over to her other side and shook out her arm.

"Alright." Without thinking I leaned down to kiss her, but she turned her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Denied egg eater. Brush your teeth and use Listerine unless you want me to barf all over you." she laughed. "It's a psychological thing, I'll explain it when you're not on a time frame. Now go and get ready."

"Yes ma'am." I smiled ruffling Luke's messy curls. "See you two in a few."

"Cheesy with the rhymes Mr. Cullen." Bella laughed.

Before the door swung shut I could hear her talking to Lucas about how messy he was. I rushed across the hall in an effort to get ready for my meeting with Benjamin and Angela Cheney the co-owners of a well known parenthood magazine. I had went to college with Ben and was even present at the frat party where he met Angie. We were great friends but hadn't talked in a while until I received an email about a week after Vicky and James passed away. After conversing through email back and forth I found out that Ben and Ang started their own magazine.

It wasn't until I had informed Ben during one of our phone calls about the predicament I was in with Lucas that he offered me a potential job writing for him. To say I was upset when he informed me that the only time he could meet up with me to talk numbers and other things on Lucas's birthday would be an understatement. I was going to protest and ask for a rain check but then I realized that Ben and Angela were going out on a limb and doing me a huge favor.

The opportunity they were offering me was once in a lifetime. I could go from freelancing to an actual contract career, instead of spending hours a day in my office writing articles that could or couldn't sell, it would be a sure thing. So I sucked it up and decided to just swallow the loss... not knowing that Bella would take matters into her own hands.

I got ready for the meeting and checked my portfolio one last time before walking across the hall and knocking on the door. Bella answered the door clothed in only a hotel issued robe and a towel on her head, Lucas was laying on the bed swaddled in a towel and sucking on a bottle of juice.

"Hey, come on in. Our bath lasted a little bit longer than I thought it would." Bella said opening the door wide in invitation. "Lucas has realized that splashing water is his new favorite thing to do and soaked me."

"Sounds like fun. Listen I'd love to stay but I have to run, I don't want to be late." I kissed Lucas's cheek before standing straight. "Hopefully it won't last long. I'll call you as soon as it's finished and meet you two."

"Sounds great. We're going to enjoy some frozen yogurt in a little while and maybe hit the Alamo or something." Bella smiled walking over to me. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Twice." I whispered before catching her lips with mine in a passionate kiss before pulling away. "I'll call you as soon as I'm done. We need to talk tonight after Lucas is asleep."

"Kay."

"Mama." Lucas squealed happily tossing his now empty bottle to the floor.

"Duty calls." Bella laughed. "Good luck."

I didn't need luck. Hell I probably didn't even need to fly down to San Antonio for the three days. Ben and Angela had already typed up a contract and settled on numbers for my salary clearly giving me a chance of a lifetime. When I mentioned that it was Luke's birthday they both yelled at me for not telling them and then insisted that Bella, Luke and I came over to their place for dinner. We signed the contract and I left less than forty five minutes after I left the hotel.

After running back to my room to change out of the unneeded business suit I called Bella finding out that she and Luke were at the soft serve shop down the street. After a quick goodbye, I headed out deciding to walk instead of getting the rental car. We were in a great area, wonderful for the tourists everything was walking distance.

I entered the ice cream parlor and immediately found the two of them. Luke was sitting in a highchair waving a spoon around squealing and splattering ice cream all over the table while Bella laughed.

"Hope you saved some for me." I smiled leaning down and kissing the both of them on the top of the head.

"Nope, Lucas doesn't like sharing so we're going to have to get our own." she laughed. "Wanna share something?"

"Go and order it while I teach the boy some manners." I gestured to the front counter sitting on the other side of the sticky baby.

"What flavor?" Bella asked turning around and cocking her head to the side.

"Ice cream is ice cream. I'm not picky." I replied as Lucas swung an ice cream covered spoon splattering me with colorful ice cream.

**So Bella is a vegetarian... something I am oh so familiar with and like Bella my significant other is a carnivore. It's disgusting but we get by easily enough... he always has a bottle of mouthwash at hand and I keep the tofu away from his man-food.. oh the things we do for love lol**

**hope you guys like it.. the sequel might take a while because I've been busy so I figured that instead of halting updates for this story that I would just finish it out and then in the future post the sequel once I have time to sit down and work everything out. Another story I'd been working on has taken over my brain and I can't focus on the sequel until I write it.. It's got Zombies and if you know me you know I have a sick fascination with the disgusting rotten flesh eating monsters. Don't worry though.. there's a love story in the middle of all the carnage ;)  
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	14. Kisses, ruined cakes and Laurel

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Hello lovelies, Just a warning this chapter is a wee bit of a time jump and some drama is to follow. **

**love yo' faces  
**

**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter fourteen **

**Bella Swan POV **

"Bella Swan, you are a strong not-so independent woman. You're going to man, well woman up and go out there and pretend everything is just fine even if it's not." I paced the bathroom patting my face with a damp washcloth in an effort to cool down my burning cheeks while talking to myself like a crack head.

A knock on the door caused me to jump a foot in the air and drop the washcloth.

"Bella." he said knocking softer as he spoke. "Please open the door. Please baby."

As if he didn't know him calling me that affected me in such a pathetic way. I almost rolled my eyes as my hands started to sweat and I could feel my body begin to vibrate, moving on its own accord to give him what he wanted. I watched helplessly as my hand moved to unlatch the lock. Immediately the door swung open and Edward slid inside before shutting the door just as fast. His arms were around me in an instant and I found myself relaxing substantially.

"Are you alright?" he asked squeezing me just a little tighter.

"Hmm, I dunno your sister just brought up my sexual history in front of everyone at your son's birthday party Edward. How would you feel if your employers entire family just found out you were a virgin?"

"That's just it baby." Again my heart began to flutter. "You're not my employee any longer."

"To them I am Edward." I felt my cheeks begin to flame again as he drug his thumb down the side of my face.

"That was your choice." he sighed.

"I know, and I'm not ready to change that yet. We've only been home for two days." I pressed my forehead into his chest.

The trip to Texas will be something that I won't ever forget. Edward and I had grown exponentially closer in those three days, making it easy to fall into a family oriented routine with him, Lucas and myself. When people thought we were a family and commented while we were seeing the sights neither Edward nor I made a move to correct them and it felt nice, perfect even. Days were spent pushing or carrying Lucas around the historical sites while nights usually ended particularly late. After hours of conversation, talking about anything and everything that crossed our minds, Edward would walk to the door and kiss me goodnight before going to his room. The tradition followed us home as well.

The man that I cared a great deal for was still across the hall from me every night.

"I'll wait for you. Forever if I have too." he whispered. "I like you too much to let you go."

"Me too. I'm just really embarrassed. I would have rather you learned that I'm celibate when the topic had risen during a private chat, not the baby's birthday." I mumbled.

Waiting to have sex until I got married was a decision I made freshman year of high school. A club had been formed by some churchy young adults and every Tuesday morning before school they would meet up and teach the teenagers that believing in abstinence was the way to go. I'm not nor have I ever been a church goer or bible beater but something in the words that the counselors spoke, got to me. Sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies scared the shit out of me. I placed my pre-Jonas brother's hype purity ring on my hand and it will remain there for as long as my virginity is intact. The few guys that I've dated in my past never asked about the lime green band on my ring finger so I had never come across the subject with anyone until about ten minutes ago.

Everything was going perfect, Esme was feeding Luke his smashed bananas and oatmeal for breakfast while Alice and I hung streamers and other decorations around the house. Edward was sitting in the living room with his dad and Jasper trying to put together a ridiculous riding toy that wasn't age appropriate for the one year old. Somehow I managed to get glitter all over my hands and took my ring off so that I could scrub them thoroughly when Alice picked it up. "What's this? Oh god don't tell me it's one of those gay purity rings." she had laughed. Everyone's attention had been averted to the two of us without my knowledge as I informed her that it was a purity ring.

Esme awed. While Edward turned beat red and Carlisle chuckled. Jasper merely nudged his little brother and mumbled something incoherent while I fled holding my cheeks in an effort not to catch the streamers and papermache on fire with the heat that was coming off of my face.

"We're more alike than you know Bella." Edward whispered kissing the top of my head.

"What? You've recently been humiliated in front of an empl- significant other's family? Cause my parents are dead and Rose and Emmett haven't been around much." I looked up at him with an arched brow.

"No." Edward chuckled. "I'm a virgin as well."

"GET OUT." I snapped pushing him away from me. "This isn't a joke Edward. Making fun of my beliefs and choices isn't funny at all."

"I'm not kidding baby." goddamn heart. "I'm not celibate just waiting to find the one, so far I've not had any luck. Until now." cue the swoon. "I respect you in your decision to wait until marriage Bella. That sort of stuff is hard to come by these days."

"You're not lying?"

"Why would I?" he smirked. "That's why Jasper and my father acted that way. As much as I didn't want to know this tid-bit of knowledge, my mother was a virgin on their wedding night so abstinence isn't something to be ashamed of."

"I'm still embarrassed."

"And I still sort of 'like' you."

Like, the word is used often. People say it when they're talking about food, music or just anything in general but to Edward and I, the word like was our one step away from love. It was far too early to start throwing around that particular 'L' word so we just used 'like'.

"I really really 'like' you." I whispered standing on my tiptoes so that I could reach his mouth.

Kissing Edward was my new favorite hobby. I'd even told him so. His lips were always smooth even though I've never seen him use Chap Stick and they tasted like mint even after we ate. My tongue loved dancing with his, it was smooth and strong, able to force mine into submission. Our mouths worked together in beautiful tandem until we were pulling away gasping for air against each other.

"Do you think we will ever be able to kiss without almost suffocating?" I asked breathlessly.

"Practice makes perfect. We better get out there before they send out a search party."

With one last peck to his lips I pulled away from him so that I could situate myself. My hair was a mess thanks to Edward's lack of restraint so I pulled it into a messy bun and turned around to find Edward staring at me.

"What?"

"Do you realize that every time you put your hair up in a pony tail, the tip of your tongue hangs out? I've seen it a billion times and it get's cuter and cuter every time." Edward laughed.

"Well did you ever realize that when you drink orange juice with pulp you do this weird thing where you like strain it through your teeth? It's gross but surprisingly cute… almost never." I batted my eyelashes and slipped out the door.

As I made my way back to the kitchen I could hear that Rose and Emmett had made it and were joking around with everyone else. I had just made it to the door to the kitchen when Edward grabbed my arm and spun me around.

"Wh-" I was cut off by his mouth and he took advantage of my surprise, slipping his tongue inside for a split second before pulling away.

"People are going to be around all day for Luke's party. I just wanted to kiss you one more time before we have absolutely no privacy until we kick them out tonight." Edward smiled.

"You're too sweet." I laughed sarcastically. "Very thoughtful."

"You forgot ruggedly handsome and an awesome boyfriend." Edward said rubbing his chin.

"Oh yeah, add that to self conceded fool." I giggled softly trying not to grab the attention of anyone in the kitchen.

"Kiss your fool." Edward instructed tapping his lips once before puckering up.

"With pleasure."

This kiss was more passionate than any of the other's Edward and I had shared so far. I could feel his hands loosening the band around my hair before burrowing inside my messy locks while he ravaged my mouth. I pressed my body as close to him as I could while our mouths moved together… that is until a crash brought us out of our juvenile make out session.

I pulled away from Edward and turned towards the noise to find Esme holding a hand over her mouth in surprise.

"Busted." Emmett guffawed from the open kitchen door.

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." Esme said kneeling down and trying to clean the cake she had evidently dropped after encountering her son and his nanny in a not so professional manner. "It's ruined."

I knelt down and started to gather the ruined birthday cake back onto its serving platter, my face burning in embarrassment. By the time we cleaned up most of the mess, I desperately needed another shower and the floor needed a good mopping. No one had spoken and I refused to meet anyone's eyes as I stood up and made a hasty exit for the second time today.

I had just made it to my bedroom door when someone, that wasn't Edward grabbed my arm and spun me around. Esme's bright smile was far too bright to ignore as she pulled me into a hug that could rival one of Alice's.

"Oh I'm so mad at you two for not telling me." she swung our bodies back and forth in excitement.

"It's fresh." I mumbled. "Like days old. I didn't want to tell people because of how it would look. I'm just the nanny."

"Oh you foolish girl. You were never just the nanny." Esme sighed, grabbing my face in both her hands. "Why else do you think we would allow Edward to hire a woman to look after a baby with absolutely no experience?"

"Because you were desperate." I joked.

"Sweetheart between the two of us Alice and I would have had no problem assisting Edward in caring for Lucas until he found proper caregiver. Alice saw something, I saw something. You and Edward were far too blind to see what we saw. It's a good thing honey."

"You think so?" I murmured.

"I know so. You're perfect for each other."

And with that Esme walked back downstairs while I had the quickest shower ever. I dressed in a pair of worn blue jeans and a sleeveless button up blouse. I decided to go bare foot due to the blisters I had suffered walking aimlessly through San Antonio in flip flops after I forgot to pack a pair of tennis shoes.

I walked back down stairs and into the kitchen just as Rose started the counter top mixer up. Everyone turned to look from me, to Edward who was reading out of a recipe book with strong determination, to Lucas who was playing with an apple that someone had cored and peeled for him. It took Edward a couple of seconds to realize that the three of us were the center of attention.

"Everyone stop staring at my girlfriend." he growled. "Mom please come help me figure this icing recipe."

And like that every one found out that Edward and I were together. We all worked as a team in an effort to bake Lucas an epic first birthday cake before the party guests started to arrive.

"I think I like this better than the store bought one." Edward said swiping his finger over some of the baby blue icing left over and sticking it in his mouth.

"Yeah, clean the mess up and then come tell me that was a good idea." I joked grabbing Lucas and walking out to the living room to meet his guests.

Luke mostly burrowed into my neck shyly, a trait I hadn't experienced with him in the three months I had known him. He refused to go to anyone when they tried to wish him a happy birthday and everyone was pretty understanding, joking that the birthday boy was simply getting his way.

Edward had just introduced me to a woman with a weird name that I can't pronounce when my heart fell in my stomach.

"Bella this is Laurel." Edward said kissing the older woman's weathered cheek before turning back to me. "Laurel, this is Bella my girlfriend and Lucas's caregiver."

I didn't understand why he would label me that way until the woman moved to take Lucas from my arms.

"Let me hold my grand baby." she cooed. "Oh he looks just like his momma. Doesn't he, Ed?"

Before Edward could answer Lucas looked back at me, holding his hands out as his lip began to quiver.

"Momma." he cried.

Silence seemed to wash over the room of party goers in a split second. Gasps were heard as Lucas continued to cry for me. Vicky's mother looked at me with an unfathomable expression while Edward remained silent.

**Um, just going to go over... somewhere hehe**

**yes it was a cliffy and yes I do love everyone sometimes when writing there are cliffys. **

**that cute conversation about the orange juice is brought to you by real life experience. My fiance is disgusting when he drinks pulpy orange juice and we live in Florida so every refrigerator has a carton of orange juice eww. A customer of mine actually brought up the fact that when I am focused the tip of my tongue pokes out, I've been working diligently on my new story writing it down on paper because we aren't allowed to have laptops at work and I'm there more than I'm at my house these days but yeah, it was embarrassing and I went home asking Jon if I in fact had my tongue lolling out when focused. He proceeded to point out all of my quirks.. when I am excited my foot pops, when I'm tired I curl the hair behind my ear around my finger, when I'm frustrated I punch things lol. **

**See you guys next week ;)**

**XOXO Pandora**

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	15. The Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Before I leave you to reading I just want to say one thing.. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE CHAPTER BEFORE THIS BECAUSE FANFICTION SCREWED WITH MY HEAD AND MY ACCOUNT LAST WEEK! yes I am aware I'm not the only one that had to deal with issues but damn it.. one time I want to update and not have to wait three days for one review. I was starting to think you guys didn't love me anymore until someone politely PMed me and told me what was going on. **

**Soooo this chapter is to you CullenLove678 because without you I was no undoubtedly going to fall into deep depression haha thanks chick I really appreciate it.. **

**now. let's let the drama unfold shall we?**

**one more thing.. When you think of Laurel think of that batshit crazy woman that Vicky wrote about in her letter to Edward in chapter two  
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**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter fifteen**

**Edward Cullen POV**

The party had abruptly stopped almost two hours ago and I found myself in the same position I had been in when it ended. Outside of Bella's bedroom door waiting for her to calm down. Knocking, pleading and begging all to no avail. The beautifully awesome day had come to a dramatic end and our worlds were changed yet again all thanks to that one small word. Two hours and her hiccupped sobs could still be heard through the wood of the door while I sat on the other side helplessly.

_Flashback_

"_Mama." Lucas cried as he fought Laurel's grasp on his tiny body._

_The entire room went silent. I stood frozen next to Laurel who looked like she had just been slapped in the face. Bella froze, her arms falling to her sides. Lucas continued to cry while the party goers just gazed on waiting for someone to say something. _

_Laurel turned to me, her face beat red as she clutched Lucas's body tighter to her own and took a step back. _

"_My daughter hasn't been in the ground for three months and you already have him calling someone else mommy?" she asked through clenched teeth, her face flushed with anger. _

_As soon as the last word fell from her lips Lucas started to cry harder and doubled his efforts at getting to Bella. His voice was a high pitched squeal but I had no trouble making out the only word he knew how to say._

"_Laurel. It's not like that and you know it." my mother said walking over to the older woman in an attempt to calm her down and put a stop to the drama. We were after all, here to celebrate Lucas's first birthday. _

_Laurel shook her head and tried to calm the baby down but he wasn't having it. He wanted Bella, his for all intents and purposes momma. Wanting, needing to comfort him Bella stepped forward and held her arms out to him. Laurel took another step back. _

"_You stay away from him. You gold digging whore!" she hissed causing Bella to gasp, her small hand covering her mouth as tears fell down her cheeks. "Don't you dare think for one second that I'm going to watch you prey on my grandson and his guardian."_

"_Now Laurel." my mom said as Lucas continued to cry harder sensing Bella's distress. "Why don't you hand me the baby so that you and Edward can go in the kitchen and talk like adults?"_

_Laurel looked around noticing for the first time that she was causing a scene and handed the baby over to my mother. She walked into the kitchen while I watched my mother carry Lucas over to Bella. Lucas immediately started to calm down the closer he got to her, but she wouldn't remove her hands from her face which only made Lucas more upset._

_My mom sent me a questioning look._

"_Take them upstairs please." I mouthed before walking into the kitchen._

I sighed and pressed my head against the door frame, lightly knocking on the door. "Bella please open the door." I pleaded. "I know you can hear me baby. Please come out and talk to me."

It was quiet for a fraction of a second before her sobs grew louder. I gritted my teeth in frustration and slid down the door, running my hand through my hair. Her pain was my pain and right now she was hurting, the fact broke my heart.

_Laurel had just downed a tall glass of chardonnay when I entered the kitchen. She didn't acknowledge me as she poured another glass and took a sip running her hand along the neck of the bottle. I stood across from her and pressed my hands against the counter for stability._

"_You had absolutely no right to treat Bella that way. Especially in front of everyone, including Lucas. We don't use that language in this house." I said calmly._

"_You forget that this house belonged to my daughter, the mother of Lucas. Not that tramp." she flung her hand in the air in indication._

"_This is my house now and Lucas is for all intents and purposes my son. You won't speak about my girlfriend that way. One more insult and I'll be forced to ask you to leave Laurel." I watched her chug the rest of her glass and grabbed the bottle before she could refill it once more. "I think you've had enough."_

"_I'll say whatever the hell I want and do anything I damn well please Edward Cullen." the woman said, her eyes filled with anger. "You're blind if you can't see that she's just here, and with you for my daughter's hard earned money that you've got holed away. What other reason would she be here Edward_? _Living in your big expensive house and caring for my grandson?"_

"_Because I love the both of them with my entire heart." a small but determined voice explained from across the room._

It had been the first time I'd heard the word 'love' come out of her mouth since that night I eavesdropped on her and Lucas. It was a word that I wanted to shout from the rooftops informing the world that I was in love with her.I didn't care that it was too soon, it was how I felt. I wanted to hear her say it back. I had yearned to hear her tell me that she loved me.

And now it was tainted. All because of Laurel.

Bella had said she loved me in an effort to fight for what we were, to stand up for our relationship and it wasn't supposed to happen that way.

_Bella's face was flushed as tears continued to fall freely off of her face and onto the blouse she wore. Her nose was red and running but she'd never looked more beautiful. She said she loved us, me and Lucas, the both of us._

"_Love?" Laurel scoffed. "You little girl don't know a thing about love. All you care about is that fat checkbook."_

"_You don't know what you're talking about." Bella said defiantly holding her trembling chin up high. "I could care less about any of that. That little boy is my life and I'm not going to stand by and hear you belittle Edward for his choice to be with me or call me a gold digging whore because I am neither."_

_Laurel stood up knocking the glass she had used off of the table and onto the floor, not even wincing as it shattered on the linoleum before turning to me. "If you know what's good for you, you'll get rid of her Edward." she touched my cheek but I pulled away, my skin feeling as if she had burned me if possible more than her words already had._

"_Get out Laurel. You're not welcome in our home any longer. I'll speak with Jenks about getting supervised visitation scheduled in the future. Cause a scene on your way out and you won't even get that." I walked her through the kitchen and the living room that was still full of guests. "I'm sorry but the party is over. Everyone out."_

_I handed Laurel her coat and bag and opened the door. She turned to me. "I'll be speaking to my lawyer about your parenting skills. It seems to me that your unfit to raise a child." and with that she staggered out to her beat up car and spun out of the driveway._

_I slammed the door roughly and pinched the bridge of my nose in an effort to calm down. Everyone was still frozen in shock in the same position that I had left them in._

"_I'm sorry everyone, like I said it's obvious that the party is over. Thank you for coming my mother and sister in law will see you out." _

_Alice gave me a sad smile before mouthing, "She ran upstairs."_

_I had rushed up the stairs and knocked on the nursery and let my mother know that the guests were leaving. Lucas had obviously cried himself to sleep**,**__so she placed him in the crib before going downstairs to help Alice. I knocked on Bella's door but doubted she could hear it over the loud sobs she was still emitting._

And here I was two hours later still trying to get her to talk to me, or at least open the door.

"She won't bother us anymore Bella. I'll make sure Jenks takes care of it. She's not stable, that's why Vicky put Lucas in my care." I knocked again.

Her crying died down but I could still hear her sniffling.

"Did you mean it baby? When you said that you loved us?" I asked placing my hand against the door smiling like a doof even after everything that had happened. "Because I really hope you did. I hate that you had to admit it under such circumstances. But I want you to know that I love you too. Lucas loves you and I love yo-"

Before I could finish the sentence, the door flew open and Bella threw herself in my arms, a fresh round of tears falling from her red and puffy eyes. I placed kisses on her cheeks not caring that she was clammy from the tears.

"It's true beautiful girl." I whispered. "I didn't even realize I was attracted to you until I had already fallen in love with you. You make me complete and happier than I've ever been in my entire life."

She remained quiet other than the small squeaky noises coming from her chest from the sobs. I rubbed her back sympathetically trying to calm her down.

"She's going to try to take him from us." she finally whispered her voice choppy and raw from crying. "You can't let it happen Edward."

"It won't baby. Trust me. We're a family. None of us are going anywhere. I promise you that." I kissed her head.

"That's just it Edward." Bella sighed. "Everyone in my life has left me, in one way or another."

"What do you mean?" I asked smoothing her hair.

"Both of my parents were dead before I could drive a car, my grandmother before I graduated high school. Emmett and Rosalie were my makeshift family but now that they're together I hardly ever get to see them anymore and when I do they are both distracted by one another." Bella sniffed. "Family or not, I've sort of been abandoned by just about everyone in my life."

"I promise you, we aren't going anywhere."

"God." Bella laughed humorlessly. "Since when did birthday parties start needing a tissue warning?"

"Sometimes things happen differently than we expect it. It's only Lucas's first birthday party so we don't have to worry about him remembering it." I kissed her forehead. "And next year we'll just have to have a major blowout to make up for this years ridiculous monstrosity. We're talking ice cream cake and perhaps a petting zoo."

Bella gave a genuine laugh before pulling away. "Thank you."

"Your welcome, but what are you thanking me fore?"

"For making me laugh, making me happy."

"Well then I have to thank you then as well. SO thank you for being here, for both Lucas and I. Thank you for completing our makeshift family in ways I didn't realize were possible."

"Your welcome."

We were brought out of our cheese fest by a shrill cry from the nursery and Bella jumped up.

"Let me get him." she whispered sadly. "I owe him."

"Bella what more can you give him that you haven't already?" I chuckled.

"I was so upset that I completely ignored him when he wanted me earlier." she shook her head before turning back to the nursery door. " I have to live up to the title you know." Bella giggled walking into the nursery and shutting the door behind her.

I could faintly hear her words over the monitor sitting on her bedside table.

"Hi there baby boy. Momma is here."

"Momma." Lucas cheered sleepily.

"Yep, I love you baby."

"Mamma" Luke cooed.

I left the two alone and headed downstairs to help clean the party mess up. Alice and my mother were standing at the sink washing the few dishes that were left. Someone had swept and mopped up Laurel's mess. As soon as I entered the room they both turned to me giving me a nervous smile.

"Is everything alright?" Alice asked.

"Everything is fine. It's all going to be just fine." I answered pulling a few trash bags out of the cabinet.

"I know it will." my mother said simply.

Here's to hoping she's right.

**So the plan last week was to sit down and start writing my zombie fic I've been writing down and outlining on paper when Lucas's name popped up on the sheet of paper I'd been scribbling down notes on. Sooo I started outlining the sequel to Bella the Babysitter when all of a sudden there was a zombie in the first chapter peaking through a window at the happy family... it's official I need to take a break from attempting to write.. so I locked up my folder with all the notes in it in the footlocker in my closet and am giving myself a break because this just wont work.. on top of that the woman that helped me get my new job was fired for theft and we have a not so smart person taking her place.. my schedule is changing for the better.. maybe I don't know yet but yeah she's not the sharpest tool in the shed so I'm busy on the phone with her for at least an hour every shift she works...**

**Have a great week and I'm thinking about possibly updating this quicker than Saturday what with the Easter holiday next weekend.. what day works for you guys? **

**leave your response in a review ;)**

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	16. Walking, Talking Emotional Woman

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Happy late Easter.. I know I promised but I didn't take into account the retard we hired at work .. I'm up there every day even my day off.. You can ask V.. she get's more pissed than I do ;)**

**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Bella Swan POV**

Lucas's first birthday party was nothing like I expected. I pictured beautiful balloons adorning the back yard, a giant professional cake sitting next to a giant pile of perfectly wrapped presents. I saw children running through the yard while the adults watched from the back porch.

Not once did I picture psycho grandma coming into the picture and ruining such a momentous occasion. Nor did I picture my blurting out my feelings for Edward in a whirlwind of drama that ensued after Lucas had gotten upset.

But it happened, albeit a little different than I had pictured. Lucas was the only child instead of the mass quantity of little monsters, the cake sitting next to the impressive amount of gifts was a homemade one and there were more tears shed in the time frame then there was at the ending of Titanic when it first premiered. The majority of tears were shed by yours truly.

Despite the drama, the tears and the wasted cake and other food that was leftover after the party abruptly ended when all was said and done, we were happy.

Three weeks passed quicker than we noticed. Lucas took his first wobbly steps the same day he learned how to say Dah-dah causing both Edward and I to cry tears of joy. He was able to walk small distances so long as there was something to catch himself on within a few feet so we were constantly on alert whenever he wasn't in our arms or in his highchair.

As if on cue, Lucas's pudgy little baby hand shot out towards the bowl of potpourri sitting on the coffee table.

"No, no baby boy. We don't play with that." I said calmly scooting the crystal bowl away from him and handing him a chewy biscuit. "He's getting too fast."

"I know." Edward mumbled softly as he focused on the laptop he had perched on his lap.

He had taken to bringing out his computer and writing in the living room because his new job wasn't as stressful. His first published article for the parenting magazine was now framed and hanging next to his diploma and other achievements. It surprised all of us when he was given the cover of the magazine on his first article. A picture of Lucas smiling behind his favorite pacifier graced the front of the magazine that was mass distributed.

_**Instant Father Just Add Water. Written by Edward M. Cullen.**_

It had been decided when Edward interviewed with Ben that he would be writing from his own personal experience. The entire United States would be learning through Edward's eyes what it was like to become a father and caregiver in the blink of an eye. His story was received graciously by many readers and a few of his predecessors as well and his family and I couldn't have been more prouder. At night I'd help him go through the fan mail that Ben and Angela sent to him from their headquarters.

"How's the article coming along?" I asked as I continued to sew the hole on Lucas's favorite stuffed animal closed. In recent days there were more and more toys coming to my makeshift stuffed animal hospital, thanks to a teething baby and his brand new lower incisor that was making an appearance. I decided to lop off the remaining toys' eyes and sewing the holes shut to keep us from having to rush off to the hospital to have buttons removed from Luke's throat or belly.

"Good, I'm proofreading now and then I'll send it to Ben." Edward smiled. "Do you want to take a walk with Luke and I down to the strip? I owe Emmett a visit and I'm sure Lucas would love some sorbet."

"Sounds good. Let me go change him into something warm." I tossed the elephant onto the growing pile of mended toys and stood up only to be pulled back down.

"You're forgetting something extremely important." Edward whispered tapping his cheek with a finger.

"Must not have been so important if I forgot it so easily." I sighed dramatically and moved to stand up once again.

This time the laptop was tossed to the other end of the couch and I was pulled onto his lap roughly with a yelp.

"Let me remind you." he whispered roughly before crashing his lips to mine with a loud smack.

We usually tried not to display our affection around Lucas to much so the kiss was short lived, when he wormed his tiny little body in between the two of us with a giggle. He then decided that if we were going to kiss that he wanted some too and proceeded to give us sloppy wet kisses complete with a dramatic 'Mwah'. After an epic kissy fight was held I raced upstairs with Lucas on my hip laughing the entire trip to his nursery. He was in such a good mood he decided to wiggle away while I attempted to put him in his wind breaker and warmer pants.

"Come on Lucas." I growled flipping him back over so that I could zip up his jacket.

He then decided to make like an alligator and do a predator role or some shit almost falling off the table while laughing like a little maniac. I gave up and started blowing raspberries on his tummy earning hearty belly laughs that warmed my heart. I was surprised when the back of my shirt rode up and a raspberry was placed on my backbone.

"What the he-" Edward clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Hey now, little ears are around." he flicked the tip of Lucas's nose and kissed my cheek. "I finished emailing the article ten minutes ago and came up here to see what was holding you two of up. Looks like your having fun."

"Your son." I huffed pointing to the kid in question. "Wouldn't let me put his pants on. You need to have a talk with him. I'm beginning to think he's a nudist Edward."

Edward leaned over the changing table that was starting to get a little too small and rubbed noses with Luke. "You need to put your pants on little dude. No running around naked until your five."

"What do you mean five? He'll be in kindergarten." I exclaimed.

"Oh, well." Edward pouted thoughtfully before turning back to Lucas. "Till you're thirteen."

"Oh god no. He'll be hitting puberty. Eww, that's enough." I laughed.

"Fine, no naked time until you're out of the house and in college. How's that mom?" he asked without turning towards me.

It was the first time, since Lucas started calling me momma that Edward had ever called me it and to say it surprised me would be an understatement. I might have or might not have pulled a whole _blonde-bimbo-getting-proposed-to-by-rich-motherfucker-in-the-middle-of-a-crowded-restaurant_. Complete with the gasp-like breath and the hand over the mouth while the other one fanned my misty eyes.

The entire time I was making a goddamn fool out of myself Edward was able to wrestle the little bugger into his suit complete with a cool beanie that matched his daddy's.

Like a ninja on crack I lifted the edge of my shirt and wiped my bleary eyes, stuffed the stupid flapping extremity in the pocket of my jeans before Edward could pick Luke up and turn towards me.

"So?"

"So what?" I asked feeling a little paranoid and panicky.

"Sew buttons on your underwear Bella. What do you think about the no living like a nudist until he's in college and out of the house?" Edward passed the baby over to me.

"Oh, sounds good?"

"Hmm, well let's get going." Edward said after a long pause.

The entire time we walked to the strip mall, pushing Lucas in his stroller I was a little behind Edward lost in my thoughts.

He was evidently seeing the three of us together in eighteen years. I couldn't shake the small part of me that was trying to doubt what we had.

It was obvious that we were moving fast and a little out of order. Hell, I was living with him before I was dating him and here it is going on a month give or take a few days and we hadn't even gone out on a date. Mother nature was rearing her ugly head any day now so we'll blame the fact that I was now walking about five feet behind the happy duo bawling my eyes out.

Edward Cullen has a few ninja moves in his tool belt as well and gave me a quick over the shoulder look before abruptly stopping the stroller. I think I heard Lucas grunt as the straps holding him in protested.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing Edward." I sniffed wiping my eyes. "It's nothing."

"You're lying Bella, you're lying." he mocked me pulling the stroller behind him until he was in front of me.

"I'm not lying. It's ridiculous, that I'm even crying. Blame it on the hormones that are swimming through my body right now. I could cry watching Harry Potter."

"Hormones?" Edward asked his eyebrow quirked in confusion making him look loads cuter than he already did.

"Yeah, my visitor is coming soon." I blushed.

"Visitor? Should we get the guest bedroom ready?" he asked his head turned to the side.

"No, god." I face palmed. "My period Edward. My period is coming soon."

Edward turned blood red and he started coughing nervously. Lucas thought it would be funny to fake cough adding a dramatic fake sneeze in every once in a while before breaking off in giggles.

"Oh, well. Um." Edward mumbled.

"It's fine, sorry for blurting it out. I did try to be subtle." I fanned my hot face before grabbing the stroller and leading the way to the game store. Edward followed behind us for a few minutes before catching up.

"So are you going to be okay? Like should we just go back home and let you rest?" he asked nervously.

"No." I laughed. "It comes every month, I'm pretty sure I can handle walking to the game store."

"Oh." Edward trailed off.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Not wanting to argue that he was playing the same game we played minutes ago minus the tears and dramatics I just rolled my eyes and continued walking.

Emmett was sitting on the back of his bubba truck fixing what looked like a baby car seat.

"Emmett McCarty you better not tell me that you knocked my best friend up." I screamed.

Emmett held his hands up in shock before laughing nervously and pointing to Luke. "No stupid it's for squirt."

"Huh?" I turned to find Edward smiling widely.

"Emmett and Rose offered to baby sit Luke for a couple of hours while we go on our first official date." he said proudly. "I know it's a little overdue, but there's not time like the present. We have dinner reservations in an hour and then we'll go watch a movie before we have to pick up Luke. If that's alright with you?"

I pulled Lucas from his stroller and hugged him tightly. It was the first time I'd been apart from him even if it was just for a few hours. We'd always been just a room or floor away from each other.

"Bella?" Emmett asked worriedly. "Are you alright? Your eyes are leaking."

"I'm good." I blushed wiping away a stray tear before passing the baby to him. "You better take care of him Emmett. If I see so much as a hair out of place I'll email your mom the pictures of you at last year's Christmas party."

Emmett's face went white before he started stuttering. "Of course I won't let anything happen to little man. Evil ready to attack mama bear suits you Bells."

"Shut up Emmett." I growled.

"He's right babe. Let's say goodbye and get going. We'll see him in a few hours." Edward said wiping another stray tear off of my cheek.

It took me ten minutes to say goodbye to Lucas. Twenty kisses, two raspberries and fifteen giant hugs later Edward was practically pulling me down the street towards the house laughing at my dramatic display of separation anxiety.

"Jesus Bella, isn't this supposed to be the other way around?" He chuckled.

"I can't help it. He's mine. I just want him around me all the time." I shrugged.

"I know, you shouldn't worry."

We entered the quiet house laughing when we tripped over a stray toy on the way upstairs before separating to our rooms to get ready. I dressed in my favorite wine colored corduroy pants my favorite boots and a cashmere sweater twisting my hair into a loose but fun bun. Deciding not to tackle make up I just powdered my nose and put some eyeliner, mascara and chapstick on. Just as I was finishing, there was a knock on my door so I rushed over and swung it open revealing a handsome as ever Edward.

"Miss Swan." He greeted me holding his hand out for me to take. "Are you ready to be wined and dined before we go to pick up the baby?"

"Yep." I smiled grabbing my bag and jacket before taking his offered hand.

**When my best friend had my godson we were both seventeen. She refused to leave the house and her then husband called me to stage an intervention. Bella's departure from Luke is mild compared to the amount of tears that were shed before before we could even get out of the drive thru, and then through the dinner and the movie that i forced her to enjoy. :)**

**Um remember those warnings? Well next chapter they are coming into affect. sooo see yah next time**

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	17. An Unexpected Event on Date Night

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**I wish I had enough time to sit and write... the sequel is hammering at the back of my skull trying to get out and I just never have the time.. at least I have these chapters prewritten to hold everyone off while I suffer from lack of life outside of work  
**

**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter seventeen**

**Edward Cullen POV**

Our drinks hadn't even arrived to the table yet before Bella started shifting nervously and glancing at her purse every few seconds.

"Are you sure we should do this tonight Bella?" I asked, ready to cancel the drinks and drive her home if she wasn't feeling up to it.

"What? No, I'm fine." she replied distractedly.

"Is there something in your purse that's going to come out and bite you or something? Because you keep staring it down." I chuckled.

"Oh, well I'm nervous to be away from Lucas that's all Edward. I promise you I'm fine." Bella blushed. "I keep picturing Emmett duct taping him to the wall to keep him from getting into anything, they haven't baby proofed the house Edward. What if Emmett tries to feed him something and he chokes?"

"Rosalie is there to make sure Emmett doesn't do anything wrong baby, I promise." I attempted to reassure her but she didn't seem convinced. "Will it make you feel better if we call them before we order?"

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not. I brought you out tonight so that we can have some privacy and a little quiet time. We won't have a good time if you're constantly worried, so go ahead and make the phone call."

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't tell you to call if it bothered me Bella. And to tell you the truth I'd like to know how Lucas is fairing away from us." I answered truthfully. "Go ahead."

"Okay." Bella said happily grabbing her phone and hitting a few buttons. "Hey Emmett, I was just calling to check on Luke. How's he doing?"

There was a pause and Bella smiled widely before covering the phone. "He's singing in the background, it's so cute." she offered me the phone but I just shook my head focusing on the waiter as he sat our drinks in front of us. Bella continued to talk to Emmett, instructing him of Lucas's favorite blanket he liked sleeping with and how to properly mix his cereal. "Alright thank you so much for this Em, and tell Rose too. We'll see you in a few hours. Love you too. And give him kisses for me." she smiled as she hung up shoving her phone in her purse and her purse on the floor. "They are fine."

"I knew they would be. Are you ready to order or do you need any more time?"

"I'll go with the mushroom ravioli with garlic bread and a side salad with Italian dressing, no croutons." Bella rambled off after closing her eyes and pointing to something on the menu.

"And for you sir?" the waiter asked.

"I'll have the same, ranch instead of Italian please." I folded my menu and handed it over before turning to Bella. "I don't want to have to go home and brush thoroughly after dinner."

I wanted to be able to kiss her while we waited in line to get into the movie without her freaking out over my meat breath. Something as trivial as a little meaty marinara wasn't going to hinder our date night that was for sure.

"Smart move Cullen." Bella smiled around the rim of her wine glass sipping before licking the red liquid from her lips. "Mm, that's good."

"Glad you like it. The house wine has always been a favorite of mine here." I took an appreciative sip of my own. "What kind of movie do you want to see?"

"Something funny. Like 'oh my god I'm going to pee my pants' funny." Bella giggled. "But if they don't have anything that looks promising I could go for a horror flick. Anything really so long as it isn't a chick flick, god knows I've shed enough tears lately to last at least a month or two."

"There's nothing wrong with being a little emotional Bella." I reassured her.

"Yeah but when the amount of tears that you shed can feel a small lake you've got issues." Bella sighed. "Let's just have fun tonight."

"That sounds good to me." I reached over and clasped her hand. "I'm sort of glad that I get you all to myself, even if it's for a couple of hours. Even if a small part of your brain will be constantly thinking about another man."

Bella giggled loudly as the waiter sat our food down sprinkling fresh mozzarella on the dishes before scampering off to give us some privacy. We sat and ate in companionable silence catching each other's eye every so often. I could tell that Bella was starting to loosen up and was glad.

In all the time she had been with us, she hadn't had a day off so I wanted her to realize that she could relax and have a good time without worrying about feedings and diaper changes.

After sharing a sundae and one more glass of wine we drove to the theater holding hands. It was nice being with just Bella, neither of us felt the need to fill the comfortable silence but I could tell that she was missing Lucas. The truth was, I was starting to miss the little tyke a bit myself.

Bella chose the movie and went to get us seats while I grabbed us a drink to share. The theater was less than half full so Bella and I took an entire row to ourselves, pulling the arm rests up so that we could snuggle together. Unfortunately the pee-your-pants funny movie Bella requested was sold out so we had to settle on the horror flick that turned out to me more blood and guts than actually scary.

More than once I was thankful for my strong stomach as the disgusting scenes played out on the big screen. Halfway through the movie Bella hadn't taken her hand from over her eyes since the last horrific debacle, so I pulled her closer and whispered in her ear.

"We can leave if you want you know."

"No, it's just gross." she grumbled. "You would think after watching Lucas puke spaghetti and other half digested things that I would be alright watching people get cut into little pieces and tortured by this sick man but no, it's just nasty."

"Do you want to go?" I asked again.

"No, just watch the movie. Then we'll go pick up Lucas." she murmured against my neck wrapping her arms around my middle. "I'm just going to rest my eyes."

The climax of the movie was just as bloody and gory as the beginning, middle and the end. By the time the credits rolled a few people had walked out and despite the screams coming from the actors and actresses, Bella had fallen asleep against me. I waited until everyone was exiting the theater to try to wake her up marveling at how cute she looked.

"Baby, the movie is over." I whispered shaking her softly.

"Mfew more minutes?" she mumbled, her voice garbled and muffled by my neck.

I kissed the top of her head and continued to shake her gently rubbing her back. "Don't you want to go get Lucas? I'm sure he misses the two of us."

Before I could finish my question Bella stood up adjusting her clothes and grabbing her bag all at once. She started walking towards the exit before turning back to me and sighing impatiently.

"It's not that I didn't love our date Edward but I really miss Lucas." she explained with a shy smile. "So if you wouldn't mind can we please go?"

"Of course we can. That was the plan after all." I stood up and walked over to her.

"Then why are you taking so long?" she sighed exasperatedly. "Let's get a move on Cullen. The baby is waiting."

I chuckled as she practically dragged me out of the theater, out to the parking lot and straight to the car. She refused to let me open the door for her mumbling that I was taking too long poking along and had her seat belt on and the car started before I could open the driver's side door and get myself situated.

"Well, impatient much?" I joked strapping my seat belt and pulling out of the parking spot.

"Shut it and drive." Bella harrumphed pulling out her cell phone, the act reminded me that I needed to turn mine back on since we were no longer in the theater.

As soon as my phone turned on, it started beeping with unheard messages so I pressed my inbox and listened.

"_Mr. Cullen this is David Mathews with Volturi security we received an alert from your residence. A call has been made to the local police department and they should arrive momentarily." _

"_Mr. Cullen this is David Mathews with Volturi security calling in regards to the intruder alert we received at seven forty-five tonight. The police have apprehended the intruder and our employees are repairing the damage to the back door of your property. If you could give me a call back that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you."_

"Shit." I exclaimed tossing my phone in the cup holder.

"What is it?" Bella asked worriedly. "Is it Luke?"

"No, the house was broken into. The security team said something about the back door being damaged and that they got the fucker." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Can you call Emmett and Rose and see if they can keep Luke for a little while longer please?"

"Yes, of course." Bella stuttered before making the phone call. She talked softly and calmly to Rose before hanging up and turning to me. "Are you alright?" her voice full of fear.

"I'm fine baby. Just upset. I hope they didn't mess anything up to badly. There are a lot of memories in that house and I hate for them to be destroyed because of a hoodlum."

Bella reached over and gripped my hand. "It's alright, let's just go see what's going on and we'll handle whatever happens." she reassured me sweetly running her thumb over my knuckles in a soothing manner.

Pulling onto our street it looked like an episode of cops. Five cop cars were parked on the grass and in the driveway in front of the house. Bella was out of the car before I even put it in park walking around the back of the house quickly as I ran to catch up with her.

A guy in a Volturi Security shirt was busy boarding up the back door where the glass had been shattered. A police officer stopped Bella before she could go in the house.

"I'm sorry miss, the security company informed us that this house is under the name Edward Cullen, unless you're him, you need to stay out here."

"I'm Edward Cullen and she's my girlfriend, so she can go in." I cleared my throat.

From there I was swept through a play by play of how the intruder broke the back door with a brick out of the rubbish pile by the shed. After entering the house they went straight upstairs to the nursery before the police arrived and arrested them.

"We have him out in the car if you'd like to come take a look. Maybe you know him." Officer Murphy said leading me out of my front door while Bella went with officer Dearing to make sure that none of Lucas's belongings were vandalized.

I could tell she was angry and upset that the intruder had went straight for the nursery, as was I. W_hat did they want?_

The douche sat in the back seat of the first cruiser in the driveway. His greasy blond hair hung loosely in his eyes and he looked scared shitless. As he should.

Officer Murphy opened the door so I could take a good look.

"I've never seen this piece of shit before in my life." I answered his silent question coldly.

"He refused to answer any of our questions until we got a lawyer for him so we'll just drive him down to the station and book him." Murphy said slamming the door shut as Bella and Dearing came down the front steps.

Bella threw herself at me shaking like a leaf. "That bastard was packing his things Edward. He was going to kidnap Luke." she cried.

"Its fine baby, they caught him." I choked out swallowing the vomit that was rising in my throat at the thought of someone trying to kidnap my son.

Bella turned towards the car as one of the officers opened the driver's side door causing the interior lights to illuminate the car. She pulled away from me and gasped.

"Mike?"

**dun Dun DUUUUUN!**

**Told you there would be drama...**

**A zillion cool points if someone can tell me where I got the names for the officers from, I'll let you know when I reply to reviews if you want.. it's sort of Twilight related on another website that's super popular more so than FF ever will be... GOOGLE-ING WILL ALSO ANSWER THE QUESTION BUT NO CHEATING LADIES.. LET'S BE ADULTS :)**

**sorry I wasn't able to reply to reviews.. The new chick is still retarded as ever but my schedule for the month of May is sort of kick ass.. so I might just have a lot of time to write ;)**

**you know the drill**

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	18. One step forward, two steps backwardella

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Enjoy :)  
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**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Bella Swan POV**

"Mike?" I gasped, pulling out of Edward's embrace.

Rage consumed me as I stomped over to the car pulling him out of the backseat of the cruiser by the collar of his dirty, torn shirt before the police officers could even try to stop me. Mike was a heavy son of a bitch, but the adrenalin pumping through my veins gave me the strength to throw him against the cop car roughly. Can we say Hulk Smash? Cause that's what I wanted to do to the fucker.

"What the fuck were you doing Mike?" I spat in his face. "What were you planning on doing with my son?"

"I-I." He stammered clearly afraid.

"Answer me you stupid asshole!" I screamed in his face tightening my hold on the neck of his shirt. "What the hell were you doing? Why were you in the nursery packing his things? Answer me now or so help me I'll pop your fucking head off like a goddamn daisy."

"Bella." someone called behind me but I wasn't paying attention. Instead I wrapped my hands around the scumbag's neck and squeezed.

"You answer me right the fuck now or I will kill you." I demanded.

"She paid me." he choked out trying to pull away from me, but unable to use his hands due to the fact that he was still being restrained by hand cuffs.

"Who?" I screeched.

"The boy's grandma." he wheezed as I threw him back against the cruiser.

"Why would Laurel pay you to kidnap Lucas?" Edward asked pulling me back to him while the officer gripped the top of Mike's arms to keep him from falling over. I could feel Edward shaking with the same rage that was coursing through my body.

"Answer the question boy." Officer Dearing demanded.

"I want a lawyer."

"You stupid mother fucker." I cried stalking over to the ass hole in question and punching him square in the face enjoying the crunching sound of bones breaking. I couldn't tell nor did I care at the moment if they were his or mine.

"Ow, I phink woo brokkk by nosh." Mike cried struggling against his handcuffs in an effort to stop the bleeding.

Officer Murphy tossed him back into the cruiser threatening him if he got any blood on the seats before turning back to me. "Miss Swan as brilliant as that punch was I should warn you that if this scumbag chooses he could press charges against you for assault." he said calmly. "I wouldn't worry about it though. He's probably going to be looking to make a deal."

"Oh trust me I won't. That fucker tried to kidnap my baby just because a psychotic bitch offered him money." I sneered. "Lock him up. We are pressing every charge there is to charge, trespassing, and intent to kidnap, the whole shebang."

"As you wish." officer Dearing said writing something down as he walked towards his squad car.

I turned around to find Edward staring at me in a state of shock.

"What?" I asked.

"Your wonderful baby." he said walking up to me and pulling me into his warm arms. He leaned down and pecked my lips. "You didn't even realize it did you?"

"Realize what?"

"You called Lucas your son in the middle of your mama bear rant." Edward explained peppering kisses all over my cheeks. "And you didn't even realize it."

"Oh, Edward. I'm sorry I just. Oh god." I tried to pull out of his embrace but he wouldn't allow me.

"Why do you always do this? Every time something happens to bring us closer you pull away and start apologizing."

"I'm so-. I just don't want to impose Edward."

"How can you be imposing? I want the three of us to be a family, whether it be today, tomorrow or in five years. Is that what you want?"

"Yes." I answered without a moment of hesitation.

"Then stop apologizing baby." Edward said simply.

"Miss Swan. Mr. Cullen." Officer Murphy said apologetically bringing us out of our dramatic bubble. "We're heading down to the station. Officer Dearing is going to stay here so that the two of you can go through the house and make sure that nothing is out of place or missing even though we caught the scum bag. As soon as you're done we'll be waiting at the station for you to make your statements."

"Of course." Edward nodded leading me into the house.

The next few hours were a flourish of filing statements, going through the nursery to make sure that everything was there. We had just finished signing our statements down at the station and were talking with the officers when the door flew open revealing the person that had caused all of this.

Laurel was looking around wildly clutching her heart in a dramatic manner. As soon as she spotted Edward and I, she rushed over. "Oh my goodness. Is everything alright with Lucas? Where is my grand baby? One of your neighbors called me and said there were cops in your front yard." she rambled, spewing shit out of her lying mouth.

I made a move to give her the same treatment I gave Mike, but Edward stopped me, wrapping a firm arm around my waist. "Don't do it baby. She'll get hers and then we can go get Luke." he whispered calmly as Officer Murphy cut off Laurel.

"Are you Lucas Cullen's grandmother?" he asked in a calm manner.

"Of course I am. Where is he?" she asked wringing her hands nervously.

I watched the officer reach for her hand as if he was trying to make her comfortable and Laurel allowed him to. She was surprised when he twisted her arm behind her back and began reading her, her Miranda rights.

"I would never hire someone to kidnap my grand baby." she cried as he led her down the hallway and into an interrogation room next to the one holding Mike Newton.

Officer Dearing walked over to where Edward and I stood. "You two are finished up here if you'd like to go pick up your son. Someone will be in contact in a few days to inform you of what's going on."

"Thank you so much Officer Dearing." I wanted to hug him but figured that wouldn't be appropriate.

"Please call me Craig." he smiled. "We'll be in touch. Have a good night."

Edward led me out of the police station and to his car silently.

"I'm going to call Rose and let her know that we're on our way." I said softly as he opened the door for me.

"Not just yet. We have to go to the hospital."

"Wait. Why?" I argued, wanting nothing more than to go home with Lucas and sleep holding him in my arms just so that I knew he would be safe.

"Because I think you might have broken your hand when you punched that sicko." Edward replied softly holding my arm up by the wrist to show me that my left hand had almost tripled in size and was now turning a slightly greenish black color around my knuckles.

In sheer stupidity I tried to flex my hand wincing and gasping when I heard the bones crunch together. I hadn't felt any pain up until that moment probably due to the adrenalin rush.

"Oh it's broken." I groaned trying to swallow back the tears threatening to spill over.

I was no stranger to pain and up until tonight had always had a pretty high tolerance for it. It had to of been a mixture of everything including my broken hand, the attempted kidnapping of Lucas and my period. I curled into a ball leaning against the window and clutching my injured arm to my chest began to sob. Edward tried to comfort me but wasn't able to calm me down before we arrived at the hospital.

I was moving at a lethargic pace towards the entrance, the pain in my hand tickled compared to the pain in my heart.

"I've already called my father baby so he's waiting for us." Edward soothed. "Please calm down. I'm sure he can give you something for the pain."

"I can't Edward." I sobbed. "I need to see Lucas. Can we please go get him and I'll go to the doctor tomorrow?"

"How about I call Emmett and ask him to meet us up here? You have to get that taken care of or it's going to get worse." Edward said pointing to my arm that I was still cradling.

Still sniffling I nodded and started walking again.

Edward shushed me promising to call them as soon as I was taken in to get my x-rays on my hand. Carlisle was leaning against the nurses' station when we entered the waiting room his hand tapping nervously against a notepad until he spotted us.

"Finally, I was starting to get worried about the two of you, more so than I already am. What's going on?" he demanded wrapping an arm around my shoulder and leading us down the hall to an examination room.

"Let's just get Bella taken care of. I have a call to make and we'd prefer to have everyone together before we talk about it." Edward answered helping me get up on the exam table. He then leaned down and kissed my forehead. "I'll be right back baby. I'm gonna get our boy."

"Thanks." I sniffed smiling at the mention of our boy, my boy.

Carlisle made short work of covering me with a lead vest and setting my hand up in a few different positions for the x-ray technician. He worked quietly until the small woman came out and informed him that they had enough slides and that it would just be a little while. After she left Carlisle gave me a serious look.

"So what's it going to take to get you to spill about what happened?" he asked. "All Edward told me was that you had hurt your hand and that he thought it was broken."

"I'd rather not talk about it Carlisle. I'm in a lot of pain and like Edward said it would be best to have everyone present." I explained.

"Fine," he sighed. "I guess I'll go get you something for the pain."

As soon as he opened the door Edward slipped in with a smile on his face for the first time since we left the movie.

It was hard to believe that just a couple of hours ago Edward and I were enjoying our first date and now we were here. In the hospital, me with a broken hand after punching the shit out of the guy that tried to kidnap my kid. Would we ever be able to enjoy something without someone coming in and ruining everything? I was starting to doubt.

"They'll be here in ten minutes. I've already informed the night nurse to send them back here when they arrive." he said kissing my lips softly before pulling back. "So what's the verdict?"

"It's broken. They're coming in few minutes to ask me what color I want for my cast." I shrugged as the door opened.

"Well it's broken. What color cast do you want?" Carlisle asked wheeling a cart in behind him.

Edward turned to me with a questioning look.

"I told you the day you hired me, I'm prone to accidents." I shrugged. "I've got quite a few broken bones under my belt."

"So?" Carlisle questioned.

"Lucas will be here in a few minutes can we wait for him to choose?" I asked taking the Tylenol offered.

"That's fine. I was wondering where he was anyways." Carlisle hedged.

We sat quietly while Carlisle put the white part of the cast on my hand making sure my hand was set correctly. The day was starting to wear on me and I started to doze off when I heard what sounded like a fighter jet coming from down the hall. It got closer to the door and all three of us Carlisle, Edward and myself jumped when it swung open revealing Emmett who was holding Lucas up in the air and imitating a jet engine.

"Momma." Lucas cheered reaching out for me.

"Baby." I smiled.

Three hours later we stumbled through the front door of the house. Lucas was sleeping in Edward's arms and I was about ready to pass out myself as we made it up the stairs and to my bedroom. I flopped down on the bed holding my arms, one covered in a hunter green cast thanks to Lucas's choice of color. Allowing the one year old to choose was harder than I thought, when he wasn't trying to eat the rolls of color he decided on a disgusting yellow color and the dark green. Needless to say there was no way, no matter how much I loved him was I going to run around for the next six to eight weeks with a pee yellow cast on my hand.

"I'm so tired." I yawned taking Lucas into my arms and covering us with the blanket I had at the foot of the bed.

"Me too." Edward grumbled running his hand through his hair before leaning down and kissing me softly. "I'll see you two in the morning, remember what my dad said about your hand so wake me up if Lucas needs a diaper change."

"Just sleep in here with us Edward." I yawned again pulling him down beside me. "I know you'll worry about him across the hall so just stay here."

"No." Edward said. "I don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because once we sleep in the same bed it will be different. What if I don't want to sleep across the hall from you after tonight?" he asked softly.

"Then we'll figure it out." I mumbled. "We've sort of went with the flow so far, what's the difference now? Just go to sleep Edward."

And we did. We slept together side by side with a baby in between us not even realizing that we hadn't taken our shoes off.

**Hope you liked it**

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	19. Bella Moving In

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**_I am alive I promise.. just busy and in the middle of some real life personal dramas. I've also been waiting for the FF to fix their glitch.. I can't reply to anyone's reviews.. so if someone knows how to get around that let me know pretty please  
_**

**_Please read the AN at the bottom.. I have a favor to ask of everyone__  
_**

**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter nineteen**

**Edward Cullen POV**

The weeks following the attempted kidnapping of Lucas was uneventful to say the least. Bella was able to acclimate to doing most of the things she usually did but with one hand while her bones healed.

Officers Dearing and Murphy called us only once, but the drama and panic was quickly swallowed down. Laurel had decided to freak out when she was informed that Newton had basically sold her out immediately and fought tooth and nail literally to get out of the room to find him. She wouldn't have been serving any time for the attempted kidnapping just probation or something lenient, but after attacking three police officers she would now be serving time for three counts of assaulting a police officer. By the time she got out of the woman's correctional facility for the mentally incompetent, Lucas would be old enough to drive a car.

Of course there was a day or two after I got the call that I felt extremely guilty for taking Lucas's only living relative away from him. Bella tried to comfort me, telling me that Vicky and James would be far angrier if I kept Laurel around for that simple excuse, that they would be angry if I endangered Lucas for the sake of having a blood relative present in his life. It took a few days for me to realize that it wasn't my fault, it was Laurel's.

My family had started coming by the house more often than they already had to spend time with all of us and dote on Lucas. Unfortunately Rose and Emmett weren't around often and I knew it affected Bella. She had admitted to me that she was afraid they were going to leave her like everyone else in her life had already so she was happy to hang out with them when they did mosey over even if it wasn't often. Rose and Alice took her out for a girl's day one weekend and when she returned, the smile on her face lasted for days.

I could tell that they were pretty much ditching Bella but didn't want to say it out load. Emmett had even informed me that he was planning on proposing to Rose and I felt guilty because he should have told Bella.

"Edward what drawer do you use for underwear?" Bella asked bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Oh the top right. But if you want that one, you can have it." I stammered.

"No the left is fine since I sleep on that side of the bed." Bella shrugged opening the drawer and dumping the basket full of unmentionables inside.

Lucas was sitting on the bed playing with a box of giant legos my mother brought over for him a few days ago. He like to stack them up high and knock them over before yelling 'uh oh'. I was currently in the massive walk in closet moving everything over to one side so that Bella would have room for her stuff.

I was right when I informed Bella that I wouldn't want to sleep away from her after the night we returned from the hospital. To make things fair she didn't either. After almost a month of sleeping in either her bed or mine Lucas decided to act like a baby Houdini and found out how to climb out of his crib. After talking with my mom we realized that maybe it was time to get him a toddler bed.

_Flashback:_

"_Okay I pulled up a few websites that have cool toddler beds." Bella said walking into the living room carrying her laptop with Lucas stumbling behind her as he tried to keep up._

"_Actually I had another idea." I interjected shutting the laptop as soon as she placed it in my lap._

"_Edward! That thing is ancient you know, you can't close it." Bella fumed pulling it back to her. "Now I'm going to have to reboot everything."_

"_Dad." Lucas scolded as he climbed onto the couch and onto my lap. _

"_Bella, I already told you that you can have my extra laptop." I pressed. Ben and Angela had sent me a brand new laptop when my first article was published. We were all surprised when it was received so well so the computer was a token of their appreciation. I offered Bella the one that I had currently been using, it was only a few months old but she said no._

"_And I already told you that this one is sentimental to me." she said sadly holding it close to her. "It's the first thing I bought with my own money."_

"_What about your truck?" I argued._

"_That was bought using the money my dad left me when he died. I worked hard to pay for this and I'm not ready to let it go just yet. Thanks for your offer though. When this one finally kicks the bucket I might take you up on it."_

"_Okay. But as I was saying why don't we give Lucas your old bed?"_

"_My old bed is at Rose and Emmett's apartment and I don't think I want Lucas sleeping on that." Bella made a face. "God knows what those two have been doing in my absence."_

"_No not your old bed. I'm talking about the one that's in your bedroom."_

"_Umm, that's fine Edward. But where will I sleep?" Bella asked still completely oblivious to the underlining question I was trying to ask her._

"_You can crash in my room like you do every night anyways? Why buy a new bed when that one isn't going to be used?" I grabbed her hand and pulled it towards me. Lucas decided he wanted in on our conversation and grabbed our joined hands swinging them back and forth. "Move into my bedroom baby?"_

"_Oh, Edward. I don't know." Bella stammered pulling her hand back. _

"_How come? You're only using your bedroom as a storage place now anyways so what's the difference?"_

"_I'm not ready for that Edward." she said softly turning a soft pink in the cheeks. _

_It was then that I realized what she was talking about._

"_No Bella. I'm not asking you to move into my bedroom because of that. We both aren't ready for that." I assured her. "I just want to sleep with you by my side every night."_

"_Oh." Bella face palmed groaning in embarrassment. "I'm such a loser."_

"_My loser." I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "So how bout it?"_

"_Okay."_

And now here we were, hours after springing that question on her we were moving her completely into my bedroom. It wasn't until she had asked me about the underwear drawer that I realized I would be living with a woman and sharing a room with her. To say I was nervous that she would catch me in an awkward situation would be an understatement.

As I moved my sneakers to the other side of the closet I made a mental note to make sure I didn't toss my boxers into the corner of the bathroom like I did every morning before showering. Having my live in girlfriend pick up my dirty underwear was just embarrassing.

"All you have to do is grab the stuff that's hanging in the closet." Bella said wrapping her arms around my middle and kissing the spot between my shoulder blades. "Unless you've changed your mind. Then you better get to work moving all my stuff back to my room."

"Like I would change my mind." I chuckled turning around in her arms. "I'm excited."

"Your face says otherwise." Bella giggled running a finger down the worry crease in my forehead.

"Okay, to tell you the truth I'm a little nervous. What if you find something that I do completely disgusting? I have to warn you that I no matter how hard I try I cannot remember to place the cap back on the toothpaste. I always forget." I gulped nervously.

"Well sometimes I'm too lazy to shave my legs so they feel like prickly cactuses." Bella shrugged. "I hope you won't think less of me if you happen to rub up against them one night. We're going to have to go a little trial by error Edward. No one is perfect so we'll just take it in stride. Deal?"

"Deal." I kissed her forehead.

"Now go and get my clothes so that I can color coordinate the t-shirts." she instructed smacking my ass as I walked out of the closet.

"Yes ma'am." I laughed.

Lucas was starting to get whiny so I knew we would have to stop and eat at some point in the near future. His block tower was now at the foot of the bed long forgotten while he snuggled into the pillow on the left side of the bed. Bella's pillow. He always wanted to cuddle with her when he started getting whiny and I found it cute that he found her pillow in his hour of need.

After arguing with Bella that not one person should own fifty pairs of jeans, Lucas decided that the pillow wasn't a suitable substitute. One shrill cry for his Momma and we stopped arguing and decided to go out to eat for dinner. Lucas fell asleep in the car and was cranky the entire time we sat in the restaurant, until Bella pulled him into her lap and fed him some of her potato soup. How she was able to manage holding a toddler and feeding him with one arm in a cast was beyond me. It just made me realize that Bella was sort of born to be a mom.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Bella asked bringing me out of my thoughts for what felt like the hundredth time today. "Do I have cheese on my chin or something?"

"No. It's nothing."

"Uh huh. You were staring at me with this blank expression." she laughed. "For a second I thought you were having a stroke or something but you kept feeding yourself so I sort of ruled that out. What is it?"

"Nothing baby. I'm just really happy." I answered truthfully. "Seeing you with him like that just makes me realize how lucky I am."

"Likewise." Bella smiled blowing me a kiss before turning her attention to Lucas who was trying to feed himself but ended up splattering his face with the soup. Instead of crying he started laughing and made a move to do it again, but Bella stopped him. "What is with you and smacking yourself in the face with things little boy?"

"Babellwwwooo." he cooed still giggling.

After returning home and giving Lucas an intense bath to remove the remnants of potato soup out of his ear and armpit surprisingly, I put him to bed in his crib for the last time. Tomorrow we were planning on going and buying guardrails for the side of the bed we were moving into the nursery. He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow so I turned on the baby monitor and softly exited the room.

Bella was standing in the bathroom brushing her teeth with some weird looking green gunk covering her entire face. As soon as I caught her eye, she spit in the sink and rinsed her mouth out before turning to me.

"Can you deal with my alien face for a little while? Its only avocado mask to keep my face clear of acne but if it's too weird for you I can go sit downstairs while it dries. I know we talked about taking everything in stride but this might put you over the edge." she joked motioning to her face.

"I think you look cute. You should wear that all the time." I jested playfully walking into the bathroom to take care of my nightly routine. As soon as I was finished brushing my teeth Bella pulled me down to her and kissed the hell out of me. It wasn't until she pulled away gasping for air and laughing her ass off that I realized she had an ulterior motive.

Looking in the mirror the entire bottom half of my face was covered with avocado mask. Bella was practically on the floor gasping for air and holding her stomach as she tried to contain her laughter. "Your face. Priceless."

I picked up the baby powder off of the shelf and opened it dousing her head with it while she shrieked in surprise.

"Your face. Priceless." I pointed to her now white green face, baby powder dusted her hair and eyelashes.

"I cannot believe you just did that Cullen." Bella growled.

"Well, if we're going to be sharing a bedroom and bathroom you should know not to fuck with me. Payback is a bitch." I shrugged grabbing a towel to clean my face off. "Do you want to call a truce?"

"Yes. I need to take another shower so hurry up." Bella giggled fluffing her hair out and sending baby powder all over the room. "Oh yeah and you get to clean all of this up as well."

"That's not how payback goes." I argued.

"No but that's how love goes. You love me and there's no way I can clean the bathroom with one arm."

"You can't use your cast as an excuse now Bella. It's been three weeks and it hasn't stopped you from doing anything."

"Yeah but you love me sooo." Bella trailed off.

"I'll clean the bathroom after you shower." I muttered.

"Because?" she sang.

"I love you." I kissed her mouth getting some of her mask on my face again. "I love you even though you're pretty volatile."

"Still wanna share a room with me?"

"Yep."

"Good, I do too. Oh yeah I love you too. Now vamoose so that I can clean this shit out of my hair."

Of all of the things that could have happened the first night in _our _bedroom, cleaning the bathroom wasn't even on the list of romantic things. And I wouldn't have changed a thing about it.

**:) THEY FINALLY MOVED IN TOGETHER :)**

**Hope everyone liked it.. now for the favor**

**I am looking for a beta/ proofreader and have no idea how to find one through the beta folder thingy uptop... V is busy with her new job and doesn't have the time to read when I need her to sometimes. I'm not looking for someone to put their life on hold when I send them a chapter.. I've also had complaints on grammer, punctuation and all around the holes in my stories so I sort of need someone to proofread, add their input and edit a little along side my trusty V... I'm not asking for anyone to be perfect.. god knows I'm probably the worst beta V could of hired(?) but I just need some help**

**If your interested shoot me a PM I'd really appreciate it**

**XOXO Ashley**

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	20. Christmas time is here

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**It's obvious that I'm not dead.. just overworked and under appreciated but it's alright.. I'm here now :) Enjoy and sorry for the super long delay. I'm sort of in a hurry so get your read on :)  
**

**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter twenty**

**Edward Cullen POV**

"Ooh what about this power wheels? Or a tricycle? Something he can ride, he likes to ride on that rocking horse and I want something safer for him." Bella mumbled mostly to herself as she searched through the black Friday sales ads for suitable gifts for Lucas. "The power wheels probably isn't safe seeing as it's a power wheel."

"He's only one babe. We should just wrap empty boxes because no matter what we put in them, he's going to be more interested in the wrappings and the packages." I shrugged.

"Edward Cullen we are not giving him empty boxes for Christmas." Bella scolded. "I want to give him the perfect Christmas gift. I know he probably won't remember it but I will. It's our first Christmas together and I want it to be special."

"Well he was just a baby so all he got for his first Christmas was burp clothes and diapers. That shouldn't be too hard to beat this year."

We went back to our tasks, Bella rifling through the many newspapers with a set of different colored highlighters while I cleaned out my laptop of unwanted files. Alice decided that we needed a day off and _borrowed _Luke for the day saying that she needed an excuse to go to the park and play in the sand box without looking like a pervert. Bella and I decided to stay inside seeing as it was freezing outside and there was nothing going on in town that sparked our interest.

"Did Vicky decorate the house for holidays?" Bella asked breaking the silence, she didn't even look up from the paper in front of her.

"Um yeah, she was a nut case for holidays." I replied shifting nervously. "James bought her the entire winter wonderland set up for their first anniversary and she had a sleigh and eight reindeer made by a local artist that works with metal bending. She loved his work so much, that for Easter she had him make a giant bunny."

"What happened to all of that stuff?"

"I guess it would be in the storage shed out back." I shrugged. "Vicky never threw away anything and she paid a lot of money for Uley to make those sculptures so I'm pretty sure they're back there."

Bella capped her highlighter and tossed it onto the coffee table before hauling herself up off the floor. "Let's go look."

"What? It's freezing out there." I argued.

"Edward I don't want to sit here all day. Let's go see if the stuff is out there and if it is, we can bring it out. I want to have it set up before Alice comes back with Lucas tonight."

"Bella."

"Please Edward. I want it to be a tradition for us." Bella pouted pulling a full on sad puppy face. "Every year we'll set up a winter wonderland for him before he comes home. We can even tell him that Aunt Vicky and Uncle James sent it to him."

Her words pulled at my heart strings and before I knew it, we were bundled up and headed out into the back yard towards the giant barn like structure. I was already freezing my ass off but Bella seemed unfazed by the wind chill as she practically skipped off towards the shed. I unlocked the padlock and pulled the double doors wide open waiting for bats or some shit to fly out but nothing happened.

"Wow." Bella said bravely walking into the dark. "You weren't kidding."

I felt around the wall for the light switch and flipped the lights on. Boxes upon boxes were stacked neatly all around labeled with both purpose and entire contents of each ones. "Yeah she went all out."

"No I'm talking about the OCD thing." Bella giggled holding up a small folder. "She has an entire color coded way of organizing all of this."

"That's Vicky." I chuckled taking the folder from her.

I immediately recognized Vicky's handwriting making me remember the last letter from her that I read informing me that Lucas was now mine.

"Hey, you alright?" Bella asked wrapping her arm around my waist and looking down at the folder.

"Yeah." I cleared my throat. "Just memories."

"Want to talk about them? I like hearing about them you know? Without them I wouldn't have Lucas." Bella gasped smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know baby. I get what you're saying. Let's start carrying these boxes out to the front yard." I handed her a small stack of flat boxes labeled _Christmas lights_ before grabbing one of the bigger boxes.

"So what did the folder remind you of?" Bella asked as we made our way around the house deciding against walking through the house because of our boots.

"Vicky's handwriting. We had all of the same classes in elementary school so when we got to junior high and everything was segregated she insisted that we write notes to each other every period. It followed us up until senior year when we were able to pick all of the same electives so we didn't really have to bother with it. When we were adults in the real world every now and then I'd go to my mail box and find a letter from her even though we talked every day. The last letter I got from her was attached to her will."

"Your mom told me that you two were super close. I've seen a bunch of pictures of the two of you." Bella laughed opening the first box. "Hmm, we left the box with the hangers in the shed. I'll go grab them while you find a spot for the manger."

"Okay."

The rest of the day was spent walking back and forth from the back yard to the front, opening boxes and finding spots for the many things. Bella and I even managed to move the sleigh and reindeer out to the front yard without having to call Jasper or Emmett for help. Bella freaked out when I climbed on the roof with a staple gun and a string of lights following my every move with a cell phone in hand ready to call 911 had I fallen off the roof.

By the time we were done, it was just starting to get dark and we both had damp socks so Bella ran upstairs to grab us each a fresh pair while I made some hot cocoa. Alice called to inform us that she and Lucas were on their way home so I decided to take Bella outside and turn the lights on just to make sure that everything was in working order before they arrived.

We changed our socks and grabbed our mugs of cocoa before heading out to the front porch.

"Go stand over there." I pointed to the middle of the yard.

"Why? It's cold I want to cuddle." Bella pouted.

"Because I said so." I kissed her pout. "Now go."

"You're so frustrating. I hope you're happy when I catch pneumonia and you have to take care of me." she grumbled stomping in the ankle deep snow all the way to the area I pointed out. "And you need to go get me a new pair of socks because mine are already wet."

"I promise it will be worth it. Now close your eyes." I called.

"What? Are you mad?"

"No just do it."

"Fine you irritating man." Bella whined covering her eyes with one hand while clutching the cup to her chest with the other.

I quickly plugged the last extension cord in and flicked the switch on before going out to meet her. "Alright you can open them now."

The entire front yard was exactly how I remembered it when Vicky set it up in previous years. The lifelike manger sat just under a set of low hanging trees to give it more of a biblical look. The sleigh sat in the middle of the yard right under Lucas's nursery so that if we were to stand at his window you could see the entire winter wonderland.

"Oh my god." Bella whispered. "It's beautiful."

I looked down at her taking in the way the blinking lights that were hanging above us made her look almost ethereal. Her dark eyes shining brightly, and a mega watt smile almost hidden behind the long scarf she wore around her neck. Her hair was a little windblown under the handmade hat but she was perfect.

"You sure are." I whispered hugging her against my side and kissing her cold forehead.

"You're such a cheese ball Edward." Bella blushed as she took in the entire scene before us. "I think it's perfect."

"Do you have any Christmas traditions growing up?" I asked her once we were settled on the front porch to wait for Alice and Lucas to arrive.

"Not really. My dad couldn't cook worth a damn so we spent a lot of our Christmases at Denny's." she shrugged. "When he died and I moved in with my grandmother, she would go all out complete with a tofu-turkey for me and a real one for her. On Christmas eve we would open our stockings and sleep in really late on Christmas morning. She never had a whole lot of money so she would knit me a bunch of fuzzy socks and hats and buy me one thing on my Christmas list. So as far as traditions go I want to create them with you and Lucas."

"I think that's a wonderful idea. This was a brilliant tradition and I can't wait to see Lucas's face when he gets here."

"I know." Bella sighed I could tell she had something on her mind but didn't want to pressure her to talk. Over the past couple of months I had learned that Bella would come to me when she felt the need to share. Pestering her would only make her angry and an angry Bella was a scary Bella.

Once Alice and Lucas arrived we walked around the yard letting him take all of the sites in before he got fussy because of the cold and only wanted Bella. Alice left after informing us that she wanted to borrow him again sometime soon and we settled down in the living room to watch a few animated Christmas movies. Well, Bella and I watched them while Lucas played with his legos on the floor between us.

We settled into bed that night thankful for the electric blanket Bella insisted on because her feet were always freezing. I pulled her close knowing that whatever was going on in her head while we were outside tonight was still doing a number on her.

"You alright?" I asked softly rubbing her arms in an effort to comfort her.

"Yeah." she replied shortly.

"If you want to talk you know I'm here." I kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, I love you."

"It's just that, I realized today that I've lived an extremely sheltered life. I never had any stability so I guess I just realized that maybe the reason for my inability to be responsible is because of all the shit I've gone through. I lost my mom when I was just a toddler, my dad when I was a teenager and then my grandmother a couple of years later. Rose and Emmett weren't exactly there like you and Lucas are." she broke off her voice full of emotion. "I want to be good enough for the two of you."

"You are more than good enough baby. We wouldn't want you to be any different." I kissed her cheek as a tear fell. "I don't want you to be upset over this because I have no way to show you how much we appreciate everything you are for us. I love you and I hope that's good enough because all I want from you is your love."

"God Edward." Bella giggled and sniffed. "You made everything better with that cheesy speech right there. Thank you."

"Any time."

"I love you."

"I love you too baby."

I watched as she got comfortable in the crook of my arm falling asleep almost instantly and knew that I needed to make it official. We were meant to be a family and maybe making it official would show her that she was good enough for Lucas and I.

I fell asleep, my head swimming with ideas and I knew I would have to call the only person that could help me.

Alice.

**I'm sure everyone will be able to guess what's coming... :)**

**Again I'm sorry for being so late.. I've acquired another beta and I am so thankful for k8ln713 she hasn't given up on my lack of grammatical skills yet and she's super quick fast to the point that my new story will be out fairly soon :) thanks so much Caitlin. **

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	21. PB&Banana sandwich with Chocolate chips

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Does anyone have any advice for someone with a really reaaaally bad case of writer's block? cause I'm suffering hard.**

For the record last chapter was uploaded a week before the website said it did.. I started to think everyone fell out of love with the story when really it was FF being a meanie ;)

Enjoy**  
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**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter Twenty One **

**Bella Swan POV **

Christmas was approaching faster than I had ever anticipated. I found myself in a panic trying to pull together a wonderful experience for both Lucas and Edward. It was our first important holiday other than Lucas's birthday and I wanted it to be perfect. Laurel was in jail and I'll be damned if I was going to allow someone else to ruin our happiness.

Perfection included a god awful black eye I received the day after Thanksgiving when a woman wanted the last tricycle I had just placed in my cart. After an intense game of tug of war with the item that was clearly in my possession, the woman became hysterical causing a scene. As soon as the security people (who knew Target actually had their own security guards?) came and grabbed the ridiculous lady, she let go of the bike causing me to fly back and the handle bar to smack me right in my eye.

I woke up in the backseat of Rose's car with the two of them completely freaking out while my head felt like someone had stomped on it with soccer cleats.

"No Edward, Carlisle can handle it." Alice sighed into her cell phone. "He'll be able to tell if she has a concussion quicker than those assholes down at county general can get her signed in. She passed out and the security people were kind enough to escort us through an express check out, it was pretty fucking cool. We should just do that every year to keep from having to deal with the long lines." she pulled the phone from her ear. "Alright alright, sorry I was just kidding jackass. We'll meet you at your parent's house in like ten minutes."

"I take it he's as over protective as Emmett is of me?" Rose laughed.

"Yeah he thinks we should take her to the hospital for a cat-scan or some shit but my father in law can be the judge of that. Besides if we drop her off there, we can still hit the sales at Circuit City. I'm dying for the new iPod and I need to pick Jazz up some new guitar strings."

"Wow Ali, sorry for making you miss your sale. Next year I'll make sure to duck when a tricycle comes flying at my face." I groaned holding my throbbing eye, I could feel that it had swelled. "Ouch."

"Yeah you might not want to touch it Bells." Rose chuckled. "We'll be at the Cullen's in a few minutes and I'm pretty sure Edward will be waiting in the driveway with a giant bag of ice and some morphine to numb the pain. You'd think Alice told him that you got shot in the leg or run over by a car with the way he's acting."

"It's true Bella. He's freaking out. I could hear him running down the stairs and getting in the car with Lucas while he was on the phone. Hilarious." Alice trilled. "He'll definitely be there before us."

"My head is killing me." I groaned. "I'm pretty sure I left my eyeball back in the toy isle."

"Yeah, you'll definitely be feeling that in the morning." Alice giggled. "I'll be sure to run by the beauty shop and grab you some concealer because it's already turning blue."

"Thanks Alice. Seriously your humility is blowing my ass out of the water. I need a painkiller."

"I got some." Alice cheered opening her purse and pulling out her giant pill stash. I watched her rifle through the massive amount of pills before pulling out a small round white one and passing it back to me. "Here I have an extra bottle of water too."

"Thanks but umm, what exactly am I taking here doctor?" I eyed the pill but couldn't make out the numbers written on it due to my double vision.

"Oh it's just a mild pain killer. Have no fear you'll be feeling white as rain in no time. Here, eat these crackers so you don't get queasy." she passed a small package of crackers back to me.

"Damn Alice you're like a walking pharmacy." Rose joked.

"Eh, some people knit others keep loads of pills in their handbags for times like these." Alice shrugged. "Bella will be thanking me in a little while."

I should have known not to take the damn pill from the evil pixie. I have absolutely no tolerance for pharmaceuticals but I never learn from my mistakes, ever. One minute I was sitting up and munching on crackers the next Edward's shaking the shit out of me trying to wake me up.

"How could you let her go back to sleep? She could have had a concussion you idiots." he snapped pulling me out of the car with a little less grace than was necessary.

"Edward she's fine. She was talking with us until the pill kicked in. I'm sure she's fine." Alice insisted.

I leaned against him heavily as we walked up the stairs of the Cullen house, manor, the fucking place was huge. I got lost the first time I came here trying to find a damn bathroom. The thought made me giggle and once I started, it was a downward spiral.

"What did you give her Alice?" Carlisle asked, I could detect the humor in his voice but couldn't find the strength to lift my head off of Edward's shoulder.

Carlisle's shoes didn't seem amused much to my amusement.

"Oh just a percocet." Alice waved it off. "If you don't mind Rose and I will be going we have plenty of stuff to pick up."

"Alice you gave her one of your percocets? Those are very strong." Carlisle scolded. "That wasn't smart Alice. Those are for emergencies. She only would have needed a couple of aspirin."

"Sorry, she was crying and writhing in pain. I had to help a sister out that's all." Alice cried. "We'll be going."

"For the record." I slurred lolling my head back and taking in the room. "Hi Esme, I didn't know you were here."

"Hi Bella." Esme waved from where she sat on the floor with a wide awake Lucas despite it being around three or four in the morning. He looked over to me and gave me a big smile showing of the three teeth that he now had.

"Mama?"

"Baby." I cried holding my arms out to him.

"Bella you can play with Lucas once I get you checked out and you take a little nap. You're going to need to sleep that pill off for a couple of hours." Carlisle grabbed my still distended hand and sat me down in the kitchen. "Edward why don't you make Bella a sandwich or something."

"Peanut butter and banana with chocolate chips please." I demanded as Carlisle began his examination on my eyeball.

"Well it doesn't appear that you have a concussion but you do have a very nasty black eye. Keep some ice on it for the next two or three days and a healthy regimen of ibuprofen and you should be fine." he said closing his bag.

"Here you go babe." Edward said placing a plate in front of me.

I picked up the sandwich and took a hearty bite moaning in appreciation. "Oh god I forgot how good these things were. I haven't had one of these since I got high in junior high with my friend Ashton." I blurted out.

Everyone started laughing at me which caused Lucas to start giggling and me to join in.

"You've gotten high before?" Edward asked.

"Edward asking someone questions when they are clearly under the influence isn't very smart." Carlisle asked.

"Yeah home boy I'm clearly stoned off my ass." I scolded. "Have some respect."

Everyone started laughing again and Lucas decided to toddle over to me. I shared the rest of my sandwich with him making sure that he drank some milk to clear his mouth of the sticky feeling. Edward decided that he didn't want to drive seeing as how early it was and that Alice had woke him up when I had my accident. We settled in his childhood bedroom. Esme insisted that she keep Lucas with her and Carlisle so that I could rest due to my condition.

She had helped me change into a pair of her pajamas before leaving Edward and I to catch some Z's.

"Is it hideous?" I asked Edward gesturing towards my eye. "Do you find me absolutely unappealing now that I'm a one eyed freak?"

"Are you serious? The swelling has already gone down, not that it made any difference. I'm in love with you not the way you look. I'd take you web toes and all." Edward kissed my hand obviously not wanting to get close to my Cyclops face.

"You love me even though I got high when I was in junior high?" I asked playing with a strand of his hair that seemed to fascinate me.

"I love you for all of your quirks baby." Edward chuckled. "Why don't you get some sleep."

"Why don't you kiss me and make me feel like I'm beautiful despite my shiner?" I countered.

"You're beautiful with your shiner." Edward argued. "But I'll kiss you anyways."

We spent a few minutes kissing the hell out of each other before I stifled a yawn on his cute butt chin.

"Sorry. I guess I should sleep." I mumbled.

"I guess so too." he chuckled.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight babe."

"Hey Edward."

"Yeah Bella?"

"Did I at least get the damn tricycle?"

"Yep, while you were knocked out, the girls got it for you. It's downstairs with all of the bags they left."

"Well then seeing his face when he opens it on Christmas morning will make it all worth it." I yawned again snuggling into his warm embrace.

I fell asleep listening to his quiet laughter too stoned to pray that I wouldn't be hideous the next morning.

**the story is coming to an end soon :) hopefully someone has a wonderful remedy for the writer's block I'm suffering from and I can get a jump start on the sequel.. :( I hate writer's block **

**Have a good one people **

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	22. Traditions

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**sorry for the delay.. I'm super busy**

**Anyone else getting ready for True Blood? I AM I AM lol  
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**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter twenty two **

**Edward Cullen POV **

In an effort to create traditions that we would have every year, Bella and I realized that trying to start those with a one year old isn't very smart.

Wrapping gifts for the family together proved to be absolutely tiresome and frustrating seeing as Lucas had learned the joys of unwrapping presents. Every time Bella or I finished wrapping a present, Lucas would snatch it up and try to unwrap it like a small little ninja. He would squeal in surprise as he unearthed whatever it was and then toss it away before reaching for another.

Baking gingerbread cookies and decorating them to look like a member of our family was a mistake on our part. Trying to get a one and a half year old with a sweet tooth around candies, icing and cookies that he couldn't eat wasn't the greatest idea in the world. The ninja baby skills came back and I was still trying to figure out how in the hell he managed to get gumdrops down his diaper without our knowledge. Alice's, Emmett's and Bella's cookies all had a bite taken out but my dad's cookie was the only one with a fatal bite.

Needless to say we weren't planning on unveiling the cookies Christmas morning.

Attempting to create homemade Christmas cards with a teething toddler and jumbo animal shaped crayons was another mistake on our part. Let's just say the diapers I changed afterwards were every color of the rainbow.

"Edward will you zip me up?" Bella asked as I buttoned up Lucas's dress shirt.

A tradition that couldn't be fucked up was one that my mother started before I was born. Everyone was to report to my parent's house promptly at three o'clock for Christmas Eve brunch. That way we could spend time together before going back to our respective houses to do our own things before Christmas afternoon where we would meet up once again for an early Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts.

My mother and father would then go visit the children's wing of the hospital to hand out their gifts for the kids that had to spend their holiday inside the hospital instead of out with their families. It was something that I myself couldn't stomach, seeing those children's sick and pale faces and knowing that some of them wouldn't live to see their next birthday's let alone their next Christmas. Jasper and Alice would go with them so I usually just went and hung out with Vicky and James.

This year I would be going home with my small family. I hoped that we'd be returning to the house a little closer than we were before we left.

The preparations were made. Another tradition that my mother started was one that I'm sure a lot of people had. Every year she would go shopping for special ornaments that we would all open on Christmas before lunch and place them on the giant tree they went out and chose every year from the tree farm. My father and she started the tradition when they first married so the trees were starting to get a little crowded. I insisted on buying Bella's first ornament and was more than a little nervous about presenting it to her.

"Edward? Please?" Bella said once again bringing me out of my thoughts. "Where are you this morning?"

"Just excited for my mother's cranberry sauce." I lied. "She only makes it once a year."

"Hmm, are you sure?" she asked as I zipped the back of her silky red dress and closed the button on the top. "I like this dress."

"Me too. Alice helped me pick it out."

"Yeah she likes to dress everyone in the family. We just go with it to make her happy." I kissed her shoulder. "Lucas is ready when we are so let me go put my contacts in and I'll be ready."

"Why do you put contacts in? I like your nerd glasses." Bella said turning around in my arms.

"Fine I'll forgo the contacts today." I shrugged. "If it makes you happy."

"You make me happy."

"Happppeeeee." Lucas clapped.

He had recently taken up copying words that we would say but only knew a few for their true meaning. _Cookie _was his new favorite word after hearing us tell him 'no cookie' over and over again he finally took notice and put two and two together.

We piled into the car deciding to take our presents that we would exchange the following day to make sure that Lucas didn't get too excited tomorrow morning and unwrap everything in sight.

Alice was down the stairs of the porch and trotting through the snow in her glittery white dress and elf boots.

"Merry Christmas Eve." she squealed pulling Lucas out of his car seat.

"Eeeeve." Lucas cried smooshing her cheeks together and giving her an open mouthed kiss.

"Thanks baby boy. Let's go see what goodies nana Esme has for you." Alice then turned and walked back in the house without so much as a hello to Bella and I.

Jasper came out with an apologetic smile on his face and helped us carry our goods inside. Bella brought over her tofurkey seeing as she, Lucas and I were only the only vegetarians in the family. Yep, she had completely converted me to the veg-head side and we decided to raise Lucas under the same diet.

I could hear the familiar Christmas music playing before we even made it to the porch. The smell of freshly baked pie wafted through the door and I was reminded that I hadn't eaten anything all day. A tradition of my own, not eating until Christmas eve lunch where I would stuff myself to the point of almost vomiting. Naps were always in order after lunch.

"There you two are." My mother said walking over to help us with our load. "Alice ran off with Lucas so we won't be seeing much of them until lunch."

Bella offered to help my mom with the cooking seeing as Alice was absolutely no use in a kitchen. I was banned from the food and directed towards the media room with the other men of the family. On my way down the hall I could hear Alice playing with Lucas in his play room my mother had created for him. Alice is and has always been a kid at heart and now that Lucas was getting older, she was able to play with him in earnest.

"Hey brother." Jasper greeted as if he didn't just see me ten minutes ago when his wife came and stole my son. He circled the pool table with a look of sheer constipation. "Merry Unchristmas."

"Merry Christmas eve." I said grabbing a beer from the mini-fridge. "Where's dad?"

"Looking for mom's hiding spot. He's bound and determined to beat her this year with best gift so he wants to find out what she got him. I got Alice a brand new sewing machine and this thing called a grasshopper or some shit."

"It's a cricut and the only reason you got her that is because I bought your mother one when we went out a few weeks ago." My dad said entering the room.

"She hid those presents well, damn it. I looked everywhere. Thirty plus years and she still outsmarts me. Where else could they be?"

"Top shelf of the linen closet in the laundry room." Jasper and I said simultaneously and laughed as he practically fell over himself trying to get to the laundry room.

We played a quick round of eight ball before deciding to go set the table for the women. I had just folded the last clothe napkin when I heard a shrill yell before a loud crash coming from down the hall. Everyone in the house ran towards the commotion to find my father flat on his back in the middle of the laundry room floor holding his back.

"My back gave out." He wheezed.

"Carlisle Cullen what in heaven's name were you doing?" my mom demanded helping him stand up.

"Nothing." he managed to give an innocent smile despite the fact that he was in an extreme amount of pain.

"I'll go get your back brace and a pain reliever." she said turning to leave but stopping short in front of Jasper and I. "And just so you know, the wrapped gifts I've hid up there for the past twenty or so years are for the toys for tots program. I've always hidden the Christmas presents at Charlotte and Peter's house. Peter just never knew."

Jasper and I looked at each other in surprise before Alice skipped over to my dad. "Hope it was worth it old man. Let's get you situated in the dining room."

Bella was rocking a groggy Lucas in her arms while he murmured into her neck.

"I don't think he's going to make it to dinner. I've been feeding him little bites since we got here and its taking affect." she whispered leaning up and giving me a soft kiss. "I'm going to lay him down in your room."

"I'll help you." I offered.

"No, I've got it. Just make sure I get some of that cranberry sauce you've been going on about all day."

"Will do baby." I kissed Lucas's head and watched her walk up the stairs towards my childhood bedroom.

"So you're planning on doing it today then?" Jasper asked, suddenly appearing at my side.

"Doing what exactly?" I asked as Bella disappeared down the hall.

"Joining the fucking army dude." Jasper scoffed. "Popping the question you dumbass."

"Oh. Not until tomorrow but how did you know?"

"Because you've been staring at her or making comments about her all day. Now I'm not saying that you never do that, it's just the look on your face. It's all starry and goofy." He clapped a hand on my shoulder and shook me. "I acted the same way before I asked Alice. I only stopped when someone pointed it out to me that I looked like a fucking lunatic. I'm passing it on to you now."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was nervous as hell. We were going through extremely hard times and I knew that I wanted to be by her side no matter what. She could have said no, not knowing the outcome of everything." he spoke seriously, a trait I didn't too often see in my brother. "So I set it up and the second she said yes I knew I made the right decision."

"Is it crazy that it's only been a couple of months?"

"Love doesn't have a time frame." Jasper chuckled. "Before we get all sentimental and shit we should get in there. Mom's going to want to say grace and I'm sure dad's pain pill will kick in a few, so we'll be sure to get some laughs."

"I'll wait for Bella."

"She's not going to make you wait." he said cryptically before walking into the dining room.

I checked the Christmas tree to make sure everything would be perfect, smiling at the empty spots. My mother insisted that we put the new ornaments on the Christmas tree on Christmas for some reason. I didn't see the point seeing as she took the tree down before New Year's Eve. She just stated that it made it all the more special the next year so we just went with it.

"Hey what are you doing?" Bella asked wrapping her arms around my middle. "I thought you were going to go guard the cranberries for me?"

"I wanted to wait for you." I turned around. "Merry Christmas Eve."

"Merry Christmas Eve." she whispered leaning up and pecking my lips. "I love you Edward."

"I love you too."

"You'd tell me if something was wrong right?" she asked out of nowhere pulling away a little. "If something was bothering you?"

"Of course. What makes you ask that?"

"Nothing, I just feel like you're keeping something from me and it's making me a little nervous." she fiddled with the lacy fabric of her dress.

"Well its Christmas, I do believe I'm entitled to be a little private and sneaky." I pulled her back to me and pulling up the side of her frown until she smiled nervously. "Don't worry about it. Let me have this right now. I promise you won't regret it."

"Fine." she pulled away and walked into the dining room.

As the door swung shut I was bombarded with doubt. Would she think this was too soon? Would she laugh in my face? Would she be angry that I kept this from her?

Or worse.

Would she say no and leave forever?

"Edward, come on supper is getting cold." my mother called.

I sighed and collected my bearings before entering the dining room. I couldn't eat, I was so wracked with nerves I didn't even get to enjoy the sweet potato casserole that I loved so much.

**It's happening.. and soon **

**again sorry for the delay. this story will be finished soon and then I have another one ready for upload .. I've set it up so that I can update frequently.. and I'm working on something new**

**Love your faces**

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	23. The chapter we've all been waiting for

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Jesus freaking Christ.. this is my third attempt in thirty minutes to update this.**

**I'm so sorry this has taken so long. I feel like the shittiest author ever on FF. Real life drama has just thrown my life into a shit load of bullshit. Let's just say I'm single now. Living back at home. and I'm working my ass off for a bipolar dominant male lol. **

**I feel so bad because I haven't updated in forever, because I haven't replied to anyone's reviews. But I am writing, I just got a bunny named Rabbit that humps everything in sight and bites my legs (if anyone has any advice on that one please PM me because he's driving me nuts and I'm going to hurt him one day).. I am also getting geared up for a Harry Potter prelease party I'm attending on Thursday and trying to find time to sit down and relax.**

**So I want to start over. I'm erasing all of the reviews from my email inbox because it would literally take me a week to reply to everyone. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE THAT REVIEWED IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME. Yes I read all of them because I have my iPod at work with me but it's so much hassle to reply using the damn safari thing on iPod touch.. it's more trouble than it's worth. **

**I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.. because I went to post it and FF had deleted it because I was past my 60 day time allotted. Then I went and did it and didn't hit save and it freaking deleted.. then this is my third attempt so if this doesn't go through you guys aren't getting a chapter because I'm going to go run over my laptop :)  
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**Bella the Babysitter **

**Chapter twenty three **

**Bella Swan POV **

Edward was acting strange.

Of all the times to start acting strange he chose the week of Christmas, one of my favorite holidays.

He seemed a million miles away during Christmas Eve dinner and I often found him alone staring off into space. He barely spoke to anyone unless a question or comment was directed towards him and he barely touched his food including the coveted cranberry sauce.

I was starting to get nervous.

I had opted out of hanging out in the living room with the family while they ate their pie and instead chose to start tackling the dishes despite their pleas. Edward was so far away in his thoughts that he wasn't one of the people trying to get me to join the family for dessert.

Scrubbing dishes was something I found relaxing as weird as that may sound. I was able to lose myself in the scent of Esme's expensive dish soap and her fancy scrub brushes and sponges while the family-Edward's family laughed and enjoyed themselves in the living room. I could hear Lucas laughing and gabbing away having just woke up right after we were done eating, he was now enjoying small bites of everyone's dessert as he walked from plate to plate.

"Bella if you scrub that plate anymore you're going to take the hand painted snowflakes off." Alice said hopping up on the counter beside me and grabbing a drying towel. "Esme paid a hefty penny for those."

"Sorry." I blushed rinsing the plate and handing it over to her.

"No problem. I've got your back." she shrugged. "So what's wrong with you tonight? You seem a little distant."

I couldn't help but snort at her accusation. "I'm sorry, you're saying I'm the one acting distant? What about your brother in law?"

"Edward is a weirdo. Always has been. He has his bouts of temporary depression all the time." she explained. "But I can tell something is bothering you. You never say no to something sweet and my triple mint chocolate pie is the mother of all deserts. I made it especially for you."

"I'm sorry Alice. I just don't want to be in there. He's being weird and distant with me lately and I don't want to smother him or anything." I turned towards her. "You don't think he's planning on breaking up with me do you?"

"Oh god no Bella." she laughed. "How could you even think that? He loves you with all of his heart."

"I know but he's been pulling away and out of it for the past couple of days. What if he's just forcing himself to spend the holiday with me and then he's going to dump me or something? Did I do something or cross a line trying to make this holiday perfect? I mean it's our first Christmas together and I'll admit I might have gone a little overboard."

"Hey you can never go overboard for Christmas. I resent that comment." she chided. "You're worrying about nothing Bella."

"Am I? I mean if he didn't want to be with me anymore, would you tell me? Or would you have some kind of loyalty to him because he's your brother in law and you've known him longer?" I paced the kitchen. "Why am I even asking you this? I can't question your loyalty. Family comes first."

"That's it." she stopped me mid rant she leaned over and grabbed my face in her tiny hands. "Think about it Bella. There are two people missing from this holiday that meant an awful lot to Edward. He has never had time to mourn the loss of Vicky and James because his focus was based solely on Lucas."

My heart fell into my stomach and I immediately felt guilty. "Oh god. I'm such a dumb ass. Oh I'm such a bitch." I face palmed.

"You're neither. I could see how you could misconstrue the way he's been acting but you've got to realize something Bella. That boy loves you, more than the world. He won't ever push you away."

Tears sprang to my eyes. "I love him too. I was just scared. I've never felt this way about anyone Alice."

"He hasn't either so you're sort of perfect for each other really. It's like trial by error or some shit." she giggled. "Now let's leave the rest of the dishes for the guys to do and you come in the living room to enjoy some of my pie? You won't regret it." she sang jumping off the counter and reaching up to wipe my eyes.

"Thanks Alice." I sniffed. "I'll be there in a second."

"Alright I'll cut you a huge slice." she flitted back to the living room and I took a second to collect my bearings.

** ~BTB~BTB~**

"Oh god I regret it." I moaned later that night while I writhed in pain.

"I warned you that the third piece of pie probably wasn't a very good idea sweetie." Edward chuckled. "Hell the second one was probably a bad idea."

"But it was so good." I groaned. "Now I'm having to pay for my bad judgment. My stomach feels like it's going to explode."

"Well yeah you crammed like three days worth of food into one sitting." he joked.

"Shut up Edward. I don't need you making fun of me." I cried as my stomach cramped again.

"Just lie down and relax. I'm sorry." Edward soothed handing me a dose of milk of magnesia.

I was about to refuse because my stomach couldn't take any more but decided to brave it hoping it would bring comfort. I took the dose like a shot before lying back against the pillows on the bed.

Lucas had fallen asleep on the way home so he was down for the night leaving a whiny me and Edward alone.

"You better feel better soon we have to go play Santa." He smiled climbing into bed next to me and rubbing my stomach soothingly. "Your stomach is rock hard."

"Yeah. At least I know how it will be if I ever get pregnant." I laughed until I felt Edward stiffen against me, his hand freezing on my abdomen. "I was joking Edward."

"Really? You mean you don't want kids?"

"I never really thought about it before. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have probably laughed in your face." I giggled resting against his chest.

"And now?" he asked curiously.

"Now that I have Lucas and I've watched him grow I can't help but want to have one of my own someday. I love that Lucas calls me momma and I can't wait to have children." I kissed his chest.

It was weird. Just this afternoon I thought he was going to leave me and now here we were talking about the possibility of more children in the future.

"What about you?"

"Lucas is my son in every sense of the word. I would love to make him a big brother. Growing up with Jasper was always fun even though he bugged the hell out of me, but I would never want Lucas to be an only child." he kissed the top of my head and began to rub my stomach again. "How many?"

"Hmm?" I asked starting to feel a little groggy in my food induced haze.

"How many children do you want?"

"Oh, I don't know maybe two or three. I was an only child and it sucked. Now that I think about it, it would be kind of awesome to have them close in age so they can play with each other and stuff. What about you?"

"I never put a number on it, I have always known that I wanted a family though. Your right about the age thing though." he rubbed my stomach. "I think you would make a cute pregnant woman."

I snorted. "Really Edward? What a way with words. Is there such a thing as a cute pregnant chick? I heard they are like hormone crazed bitches with heat flashes and cankles." **  
**

"Vicky was a cute pregnant chick." he stated burrowing his nose into my hair. "She was tall so she didn't show for almost the first six and half months but then one day she called me wailing that she was the size of a house. She bought the cheesiest maternity shirts when she started showing, the ones that have the arrow pointing to her bulge and shit."

"Keep talking." I whispered.

"She had heat flashes. James would joke that their bedroom was like an igloo after she made him buy and install a window unit. She ate the weirdest stuff though. I remember coming over for lunch one afternoon towards the end of her pregnancy and being served peanut butter on crackers with bean sprouts on top." he chuckled. "James was trying to be supportive so he would eat the things she craved but I couldn't do it. I ended up ordering a pizza that she ate half of."

"That sounds disgusting. If I'm ever like that I promise I'll never force you to eat my disgusting concoctions." I giggled and noticed that he stiffened again.

"You want to have my babies?" he asked softly still burrowed into my hair.

"No I want to have the hobgobblin's babies." I laughed. "Why are you acting so weird. I love you. I could only picture myself with you. I could only picture having your babies."

"I love you too." he whispered pulling away. I could tell he was feeling a little emotional from his red rimmed eyes so I leaned up and kissed him before hugging his body to mine tightly.

"We'll have it all Edward. I promise, we'll make them proud."

**~BTB~BTB~ **

Edward held onto me all night. I'm not sure but I think he might have cried at some point. When I woke up, the neck of my shirt where he always nestled his face was a little damp and not from drool. I didn't push him when he became a little distant once he woke up. He ran downstairs to put out the rest of Lucas's presents and requested that he be the one to go get him when he woke up and started calling out for the two of us.

Instead I went downstairs and started a batch of muffins for us to munch on before we headed over to Esme and Carlisle's house. I also started a pot of coffee and made Lucas some fresh orange juice before I heard them making their way down the stairs.

I gave Lucas a kiss good morning and handed him his sippy cup (We were starting to transition him away from his bottle) before we made our way to the living room.

Most of the presents were at Edward's parent's house, but we wanted to have an intimate Christmas morning just the three of us before heading over there. Lucas's eyes were wide and he started gabbing away at the sight of the Christmas tree, something he did every time he saw it. Edward and I had went a little overboard on the first Christmas tree, a huge eight foot tall monstrosity covered in bright almost fluorescent colored bulbs and blinking lights complete with a giant star on top.

"Merry Christmas baby boy." I cheered giving him another kiss as Edward set him on the floor.

We sat next to the tree and watched him tear into the gifts furiously giggling when he uncovered what was inside all of the wrapping paper.

All together it lasted about ten minutes before all of the gifts were unwrapped and the living room was covered in wrapping paper confetti. I snapped about a million and one pictures of Lucas riding around on his tricycle. He turned in circles like a pro before running over Edward's foot and we decided to show him something else until we could take him outside.

I gave Edward one of his gifts, a specially made notepad with the picture of Lucas that was on the cover of his first official article for the magazine. Each sheet of paper had Lucas's bright face smiling behind his pacifier, his big eyes shining brightly. I also found an antique fountain pen and thought I would add that to the gift even though Edward did the majority of his work on his laptop.

Edward gave me something that I would never willingly take off. A thin white gold chain with a small pendant at the end with Lucas's birthstone nestled inside. He told me that it was a mother's charm necklace and that as our family grew he would add new charms to it. I was the over emotional schmuck as he fastened the chain around my neck.

We didn't change out of our pajamas before bundling up and heading over to the Cullen's. Apparently it was a tradition that everyone just stayed in their pajamas while we had Christmas lunch and the present exchanging. After that the family would go off and do their own things. Edward and I hadn't made any plans so we were probably going to just come back to the house and watch Lucas play with his new toys.

Alice was out of the house and at the back passenger door before Edward put the car in park.

"Wow déjà vu much?" I laughed.

"Shut up. Merry Christmas Lucas." she squealed pulling him into the house while Edward and I just followed her.

Everyone was sitting around the living room surrounding the Christmas tree. Lucas immediately started fighting against Alice's hold at the sight of the Christmas presents underneath the tree.

"Edward restrain the baby." Esme directed. "I have a special present for him so that we can have time to uphold tradition and open the ornaments."

She handed me a large heavy box that was beautifully wrapped and I passed it to Edward who set Lucas on the floor with it. He immediately tore into it only to find another layer of wrapping paper that had bunny rabbits on it. I turned to Esme.

"I decided that would buy us some time it's all of the wrapping paper I've accumulated over the years. There's even some millennium happy 2000 in there." she laughed. "I keep everything."

She handed out small boxes to everyone except me and I started to think that maybe I wasn't part of the family or something but didn't want to say anything. Carlisle opened his, a shiny silver stethoscope with his name and the year engraved. Alice got a shopping bag, Jasper a toy soldier, Edward a quill and Esme got a small heart from Alice.

"Oh Bella, here you go." Edward said casually as he handed me a small box.

For a second I felt a little embarrassed and hurt but swallowed the feelings. I tore open the paper and opened the small box gasping at what was inside.

A clear, hand-blown glass ornament lay nestled inside the tissue paper with the words _MARRY ME_ painted in Edward's elegant cursive. I lifted the fragile ornament with shaky fingers and saw that sitting inside the glass was a diamond ring.

Edward took the ornament from me and popped the top off, his eyes swimming with tears while my tears poured down my cheeks.

"Last night you told me that you wanted it all. Here's your chance to back out baby." he choked out. "What do you say?"

"YES." I sobbed as he slid the ring onto my finger and kissed it. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Lubvoo." Lucas squealed from where he sat with his box.

**Ugh reading this proposal makes me want to shoot myself in the eye... seeing as my engagement was flushed down the goddamn toilet.. eh when live throws you a curveball.. dogde out of the way so that someone else will get the shit knocked out of them :) **

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	24. The True Meaning of Family

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Everyone is probably still passed out from their Harry Potter hangovers... but I'm not because I went to a special 9pm viewing.. we walked out of the theater before everyone that was standing in line was walking in! That movie had my crying like a friggin baby.. and now that the epic-ness is over there's only two things to look forward to now... Breaking Dawn Part 1.. and Breaking Dawn Part 2.. even though I want to check out Hunger Games. Has anyone read that yet? Is it worth the read or will I get bored with it?**

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**Bella Swan POV **

I sat in the back corner of a dark cafe with a large latte extra foam and a bridal magazine. My nerves were frayed, they had been for the past two weeks since Edward proposed and I accepted. The first thing I had wanted to do was call my best friend and sudo sister, but she and Emmett had decided to go visit Rose's great aunt that lived in Chicago. Okay so I lied, the first thing I wanted to do was cry, kiss Edward and cry some more.

As soon as the excitement calmed down and Edward took Lucas and I home, I wanted to share my news. I hadn't seen Rose since the black Friday debacle of 2010 and we seemed to be missing each other by mere moments. Phone tag was something we had been playing for a month and every time I did get her, she was busy with something else. A quick request that I allow her to call me back would be said before she hung up sometimes without so much as a 'love yah bye'.

I saw Emmett whenever I wanted to, he worked just a short walk from the house so all I had to do was bundle up and strap Lucas in his stroller for a quick walk. Emmett seemed to be his always happy self when we showed up and many of our afternoons while Edward was back at the house working on his articles were spent playing one of the various game systems that Emmett had restored. I learned quickly in the early days of my friendship with Emmett that even if something was bothering him, he wouldn't show it. Hell, we lived together and didn't find out that his Grandmother died until a week later when he came home in a monkey suit and red rimmed eyes. Finding out what was going on with Rose was going to be easier said than done. After Christmas I stopped taking Lucas on walks down to the game store thinking that maybe Emmett would notice my absence and call me. My efforts were futile two weeks and no call, from either of them.

Yesterday I sent her a text message basically telling her that if she didn't meet me today that I never wanted to talk to her again. Yes it was immature but damn it I was bitter. I had been engaged for two weeks and she didn't even call me on New Years.

I smiled remembering how I spent my New Years.

Esme and Carlisle had a charity event to attend in New York and Alice and Jasper decided to go down to the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans leaving Lucas, Edward and I on our own seeing as my family (Rose and Emmett) couldn't be bothered with me.

Edward and I stayed up and watched the ball drop sharing sweet kisses and a bottle of wine. It was the first time I had ever had someone to kiss on New Years that wasn't a platonic friend and it was nice. Lucas had been asleep for about two hours and we cuddled on the floor in front of the couch watching the pre ball drop festivities while sipping out of the bottle because I forgot to grab the glasses and we were both too lazy to get up once we realized it.

He kept playing with the ring on my finger, his new favorite hobby of sorts. It wasn't uncommon for me to wake up to him sliding the ring back and forth or watching the light reflect off of the diamond. An hour before midnight Edward refused to kiss me on the lips. Instead he showered my cheeks, forehead, arms and shoulders with light kisses murmuring his love for me. As soon as the countdown started he pulled me into his lap and waited until everyone in times square screamed '1' before we shared a kiss so passionate that when it ended a good ten minutes later, I had tears pouring out of my eyes.

He pulled away breathing heavily and pulled my face so that I was meeting his heated gaze. "I want to be married by new years next year."

So I started planning a wedding, not knowing one thing about what the hell I was doing. Esme and Alice offered to help me but it was something that I wanted to do on my own. They both had jobs and lives while I stayed home and took care of Lucas who was getting more and more independent as the days wore own. Just this morning he refused to let me brush his teeth so I sat him on the counter and watched him brush the three teeth in the front of his mouth. Edward wanted to be a part of the wedding plans so we split them up to tackle them separately and planned to spend Monday nights going over what we came up with.

This Monday would be the first meeting and I hadn't got anything picked out yet.

I flipped open the somewhat scary magazine and the small notebook that I had to take notes. I read the first article about how not to freak out when I heard the door to the cafe jingle. Rose rushed over to the counter and barked out her order to the poor barista behind the counter. She handed the girl a twenty and told her to keep the change as she snatched her coffee and searched for me.

I gave a gentle wave and hid the bridal magazine in my giant purse before she made it to the table.

"So are you going to tell me why you sent me a threatening text message?" she snapped before she even sat down.

"Yeah, sorry about that." I sighed. "I resulted to drastic measures to get you in front of me after not talking to you since thanksgiving."

"Well Bella some people have jobs and lives that don't allow us to make lunch dates or hang out on the phone all day long. I'm sorry that I couldn't be on the phone with you twenty four seven."

I recoiled from the table burned by her words. "Ouch. I'm starting to wonder why I even attempted to get a hold of you. I obviously should have taken a hint when you hung up on me the twentieth time."

"Oh lay off Bella. Seriously when are you going to learn this world doesn't revolve around you and the pity party you seem to have for yourself on a daily basis? I have had to work twenty four hour shifts at the hospital, I've been a little tired. It's my bad that I didn't have the energy to talk to you when you would call me fifty times in a day. But wait you don't know what I'm talking about, you've never held a solid job to know hard work if it looked you dead in the fucking eyes."

I felt tears prickle my eyes. Rose and I had fought before, I mean we've been friends for too long and no relationship is absolutely perfect. I was also used to her being straight to the point but this was pure evil sprouting from her mouth.

"You know what this was a waste of time." I grabbed my purse and coat standing up. "It's not like you care or anything but I've been trying to get a hold of you because Edward proposed to me on Christmas. Yeah two weeks ago. I was trying to get a hold of you because I thought you would be happy for me and to let you know to take August first off because I was going to ask you to be my maid of honor."

"Bella." Rose said sadly immediately trying to back track.

"Save it." I held up my hand and realized that her eyes followed the ring. "You and Emmett have been my family since I lost everyone and I don't deserve this. Lucas and Edward are the only people that matter anymore. Thank you for making me realize that."

"Be-"

"I said save it Rose." I snapped earning the attention of the people sitting around us. "I won't call you anymore and just so you know I do have a full time job that's more important than anything I could have gone to school for. I'm a mom and raising my son earns me something money can't buy."

She opened her mouth again but I ignored her, clutching my things and walking out into the frigid weather. In my haste to get away from her I hadn't put my coat on and my truck was parked a good two blocks away. Not wanting to stop just in case she was behind me, I sniffled and shivered the entire walk back to my truck receiving strange looks from curious pedestrians.

Once inside the cab I started the engine and cranked the heater and gunned it back to Forks, back home.

I hadn't done anything to Rose and couldn't see why or how she could treat me that way. The logical side of me told me that maybe she was just having a bad day, but I was tired of being the brunt of peoples bad days.

I made it back to the house in about half the time it usually would take, still crying as I grabbed my bag, jacket and the bag of crap I picked up from the bridal shop that Alice recommended. I could hear Edward and Lucas playing in the living room but went straight upstairs to the bedroom to wash my face and calm down.

"Bella baby is that you?" Edward called as soon as I made it to the top landing.

"Yeah I'm home early I'll be down in a moment." I croaked rushing into the bedroom and locking the bathroom door behind me as I rushed over to the sink.

It took him less than a minute to be at the door knocking softly and calling my name. "Bella love, is everything alright? Talk to me." followed by loud pounding on the lower part of the door. "MAMA! MAMA DOOR."

"I'll be out in a second." I called over the running water.

"MAMA NOW." Lucas whined as Edward carried him away from the door.

I calmed down enough to wash my face and found the two of them laying across the bed. Edward had his legs stretched out and his arms behind his head and Lucas was mirroring his actions. The scene made me smile.

"I'm decent." I said.

It was funny how they both moved the same way leaning up on one arm to look over at me, even if Lucas did do it clumsily.**  
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"What happened?" Edward asked gesturing for me to come lay down with them. I wedged myself in between them and wrapped my arms around Lucas trying to find words to describe what happened.

"Rose was mean." I said simply ignoring when I felt him shake with laughter. "She basically trash talked me before she even sat down."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked rubbing my back soothingly.

"I don't know how to without coming off as a whiny baby. Seriously for the five minutes I interacted with her it was like being in first grade again. Like we were fighting over who's sneakers made them run faster or something."

"When your ready." he kissed my neck.

I love that he didn't hover or try to push me when I wasn't ready. He always gave me room and allowed me to come to him when I've had time to collect my thoughts.

I ended up falling asleep, crying usually made me tired so I wasn't exactly surprised when I woke up under the covers with Lucas still tucked into my side. I slid out of the bed without waking him up and went to the bathroom deciding to take a shower so that I would feel refreshed. I hurried through my regimen just in case he woke up, having not yet mastered getting off the bed I didn't want him to roll off and crack his head open.

I could feel a head cold coming on and took a healthy dose of decongestant before dressing in my favorite lounge clothes and gently waking Lucas up so that he would sleep tonight. He wasn't happy but after a diaper change and a couple of tickle fights I got him smiling and went downstairs to find Edward.

I could hear him talking to someone in the kitchen so I took Lucas to the living room to give him some privacy until I heard my name. Instead of heading to the living room I stopped short.

"No Emmett you don't seem to understand." Edward growled. "Bella came home upset and I don't like that. The only thing she would tell me was that Rose was dogging her or something." there was a pause, I could hear Edward sigh and pictured him pinching the bridge of his nose.

"She was upset and crying in her sleep Emmett, that's the only reason why I'm calling you. I won't sit idly by and let my fiancé be treated that way." "Yes I proposed to her on Christmas." "Well how in the hell were you supposed to know Emmett? You and Rose haven't been around since thanksgiving." I heard a dull thud and knew that Edward had punched something. "She's been trying to fucking call Rose for almost a month and a half. Did you even realize that she hasn't been down to the shop in almost three weeks?" "You're her family Emmett. You don't treat family this way." "Yeah your doing a fucking great job there eh? Don't you fucking worry about her because my family can be there for her." "Your apologies don't mean shit to me because I'm not the one that you owe them to." I heard him slam the phone on the hook and then pick it up and slam it down a couple more times for good measure.

"As mad as you are, the phone didn't do anything to you." I joked trying to make him feel better. I was over it but apparently he was holding a grudge that wasn't his to bear.

"Oh, I thought you were still asleep."

"No I woke up. I'm glad I did because it's sort of late in the afternoon and I want to sleep tonight." I sat Lucasin his highchair and gave him some cheerios to eat before turning to Edward. "You didn't have to call Emmett."

"Yes I did. We're getting married. Your pain is my pain and I know your hurting." he pulled me into her arms.

"You were wrong though. You and Lucas are my family." I kissed his heart. "Rose and Emmett were just roommates. Friends to help me through the hard times that I faced a few years back."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to let them treat you like this Bella. You don't deserve it."

"Rose brought up the fact that I haven't had a steady job and that I didn't know what hard work was. I think that's what upset me the most all of that time that she and Emmett supported me, apparently I was just a thorn in their side." I sniffed, apparently not over the stuff that happened earlier.

"Is that when you left?"

"Yeah after I told her that I had the best job ever." when he quirked his eyebrow I shrugged. "I'm a stay at home mom. The feelings I have when Lucas achieves something is worth more than the highest paying job ever could."

"Your right. Your awesome at your job too." Edward smiled leaning down and kissing my lips.

The rest of our night consisted of a lot of cuddling and unfortunately staying up late on Lucas's part because of the late nap we had. That night Edward gave me a back massage lulling me to sleep despite the fact that I was wide awake. The next morning I was woken up by my phone ringing. The familiar ring tone informing me that it was Rose.

"Baby your phone's ringing." Edward grumbled.

"I'm not worried about it." I yawned rolling over and snuggling into his side.

**well I have one chapter left and the epilogue.. and haven't had time to visit the sequel because of a story I've been working on .. so it might be a while for the sequel make sure you put me on alert :) I don't know if I want to do the sequel separately or just have it attached to this story.. because I hate when stories are separate like that because you have to read the first one.. should I bundle it up?**

**I love this story sooo much and I'm already having separation anxiety :) Happy Friday everyone.. GO SEE HARRY POTTER IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY **

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	25. Excuses and Final Preparations

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**Alright ladies I have two chapters left.. one legit chapter and one epilogue... once those are done please keep me on alert because I will be revisiting this with a sequel that I will either put on here or put as a separate story or both to keep everyone happy I dunno yet... right now I'm working on a story I am in love with but don't have all the time in the world to write like I used to. But if my schedule goes as planned I will have the nights off and perhaps I will sneak my laptop into work to get some stuff done.. then again I like not being poor so I might not chance getting fired :) Enjoy**

**Keep in mind that Bella's always been a hot head.. it's just who she is. I've had people PM me and tell me that they couldn't read this story because all Bella does is scream and curse in the first couple of chapters and blah blah blah..anyways screw the haters.. I am a hot head and I curse like a sailor so yeah :)  
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**Bella the Babysitter**

**Chapter twenty five**

**Edward Cullen POV**

"Forget it, the wedding's off." Bella screamed throwing the nearest thing, a large wedding magazine at the kitchen door in frustration. "I can't believe you would do this to me Edward."

"Calm down baby. Please." I tried to calm her down but she refused to let me be near her. "They showed up this morning I didn't ask them to come. I know your hurting but it's been almost three months Bella. If they're here, it obviously means they are trying."

"Try? You're a fucking lunatic." she cried. "Try would have been coming here the day after she said all that shit to me. Making me feel bad because things came a little easier for me than they did her. Make them leave Edward. Please."

"I can't do that." I shook my head. "They are your family Bella. I see that your hurting every day, every time we finalize a plan for the wedding and you can't call your best friend to let her know."

"I do. I call Alice." she sniffed defiantly.

"Alice is your future sister in law and a good friend but she isn't Rose baby. Please just sit down with them and see what they have to say. If you don't like what you hear then I'll ask them to leave the property." I tried to reason.

Lucas was sitting at the kitchen table in his highchair coloring with animal shaped crayons. Every now and then I would see him lift up his drawing and comment in his garble. He had a pair of headphones on listening to his Disney channel play list on Bella's iPod. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice that Bella was having a meltdown.

"No." she sniffed. "Tell them to leave."

"Bella." I sighed.

"Don't Bella me. I have better things to do than listen to what they have to say after all this time Edward Cullen." Bella shouted loud enough for our guests in the living room to hear. "I've been planning my wedding and raising Lucas as best as I can so I'm sorry I don't have time to hear their pity party."

"Bella. Just five minutes that's all I'm asking for."

Why in the hell was I sticking up for them? The people that had made my fiance miserable and practically alone? The ones that had her crying at night in the bathroom when she thought I was asleep. Oh right. The reason I was doing all of this is because of what I saw when I opened the door to fetch the paper this morning.

"I can't believe you would do this to me Edward." she snapped rushing past me but I grabbed her arm and swung her back to me with a small 'oomph'.

"Please don't ever call off the wedding. I'm sorry but I really think this would be the best thing baby." I kissed her forehead. "I love you and I know that you still love them so go in there and try to be civil."

"I'm sorry." Bella sobbed wrapping her arms around my middle. "I'm just stressed out with the wedding plans and everything and I haven't been sleeping and ugh. I'm just a mess."

"You're my mess. I love you, now go." I patted her butt towards the door causing her to giggle humorlessly.

She stopped at the door and turned back to me. "Will you come with me?"

"I'll be right here baby." I pointed to Lucas bobbing away as he picked up another giant crayon.

"Bring him in the living room please?" she begged. "I just don't want to go in there alone. Please?"

"Alright." I picked up Lucas along with the entire highchair causing him to giggle madly as I carried him into the living room and set him beside the TV so that he would have the light from the lamp on the entertainment center to color.

Bella followed me, grabbing my hand as soon as I was finished setting Lucas up and pulling me over to the love seat across from Rose and Emmett. Her eyes hadn't even moved towards the couch and I could tell by the grasp she had on my hand that she was close to loosing it.

"Bella." Rose said calmly. "Emmett and I came here to apologize to you. But I think I should go first. If that's alright?"

Bella didn't answer her, instead finding great interest in the paint chipping off of her pinky nail. I could see that Rose was already getting emotional, wiping tears off of her cheeks as she stared at her friend. I bumped Bella's shoulder with mine but she just shook her head minutely and I knew that she wasn't ready to talk yet. I nodded towards Rose silently telling her to continue.

"I had no right to talk to you the way I did that day Bella and I'm so sorry." she sniffed pausing to blow her nose. "I was having a bad day and you were just an outlet."

"Bad day." Bella scoffed still refusing to look up from her lap. "Isn't it funny how I'm always the outlet when someone is having a bad day?"

I knew she was trying to just hurt Rose but her words also hurt me. I had taken my bad day out on her previously, the night that Lucas got sick and the first day I felt something more for her.

"I'm a person too you know? I'm sick of people thinking that they can just take out their anger and frustration out on me. Especially after not talking to me for months. I didn't do anything but try to get a hold of you and that's how you treated me? I didn't even get a 'Hello Bella'. Nope instead I just sat there and waited for you to come meet me for you to belittle me and make me feel lower than I already had." she ranted still looking down at her hands.

"I'm apologizing Bella." Rose cried.

"Your apology is a little late don't you think? I needed you to be my friend and my sister, to tell me that you were happy for me. I've had to do all of this by myself now leaning on Edward's family because mine is gone." Bella sobbed running her hands over her cheeks. "You had to have known that I was already feeling insecure about the situation I'm in. Living off of Edward with nothing to contribute to our household. And you fed on that. You used it against me making me feel so unworthy of what was waiting for me at home.

But you know what? As soon as those words came out of your mouth I realized that I was good enough. I have that little boy sitting over their to raise. He calls me momma because that's what I am to him and he loves me. I should thank you, but I won't."

"Bella." Rose gasped her hand covering her mouth.

Bella's eyes raised to the glass coffee table. "What? How can I be so cruel? How can I speak to you like I am? That's exactly how I felt that day in that coffee shop Rose. Your no better than me so stop judging me."

"Alright Bella." Emmett said clearing his throat and speaking for the first time. "We are here to apologize. Rose shouldn't have said those things but she can't take them back, she can only make it better and she's here so that she can try. How about hearing her out?"

"Oh shut up Emmett." Bella snapped meeting his eye with so much hate he cowered back into the couch. "I was there at that game shop almost every fucking day before Christmas because I was trying. Even if Rose needed space for whatever fucking reason she had, you still didn't call me, didn't come by. Why was that?"

"Because I'm pregnant Bella." Rose stood up showing off her giant belly.

When I had opened the door this morning it was the first thing I saw and the only reason why I allowed them in from the cold.

"Your pregnant? That's your excuse?" Bella scoffed running her hand over her forehead. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"I was working longer hours and stressed because of my work situation that I didn't realize I was late." Rose explained sending me a apologizing look. "I collapsed at work one night during a thirty six hour shift and when I came to they told me that I almost lost the baby. I was surprised because I didn't even know there was one. Emmett came in a few minute later because they had called him, he's my emergency contact. I told him what happened and he just turned around and walked out of the room."

Emmett paled and looked down at the coffee table in shame.

"They kept me for three days and he never came back." Rose sniffed. "I couldn't call you because I knew you would be ashamed. One of the last things you said to us before you moved out was that if we got in this situation that he better make an honest woman of me and he just left."

"I was scared." Emmett interrupted, his voice full of apologetic emotion. "I left the hospital and went to work."

"I know sweetie." Rose patted the top of his head.

Bella slumped against me taking everything in. "Is that it?"

Emmett sat up a little straighter. "I didn't want to bring you into our problems Bella. When you would bring little Luke to the shop I wanted to escape the drama for a little while. Rose and I weren't talking once I did go back home."

"But your together now?" Bella interrupted.

Lucas pulled his headphones off and started to call for her and so I got up and brought him back to the couch. "Let's try to keep our tempers and language in check please. Little ears."

Everyone nodded and Rose sat back down awkwardly. "After you left the cafe I went home. I was upset and Emmett just so happened to be there."

"She was crying hysterically I thought something was wrong with the baby or something." Emmett finished. "Then she told me she was upset because of you. She didn't really tell me anything but I got her calmed down enough to sleep and that's when Edward called."

I quirked my eyebrow conveying that I wasn't going to apologize for my actions during that phone call.

"We have some issues but we're working it out for the sake of the babies." Rose explained rubbing her stomach.

"Babies?" I asked curiosity getting the best of me.

"Yeah we found out a couple of days ago that the reason why I'm so big at only six months is because there were two."

"Two boys." Emmett answered proudly.

"But we're not here to talk about the babies." Rose interjected. "I'm here to earn your friendship back Bella. I want what we used to have."

"It's not that easy Rose." Bella grunted when Lucas climbed into her lap. "That's probably not the answer you were looking for but it's the truth. I've lived my life trying to make everyone else happy and now that I've learned that I matter too, I've grown up."

"Up." Lucas cheered smooshing Bella's cheeks together and giving her a sloppy open mouthed kiss.

We all laughed softly at his cuteness before Bella sat up. "It's about time for Lucas's lunch before he lays down for his nap."

Rose and Emmett perked up a little, obviously thinking that Bella was going to invite them but she looked down to Lucas and continued. "So I guess it's time for you both to leave. Edward will see you to the door."

And with that she got up with the baby in her arms and headed to the kitchen. Rose, Emmett and I sat for a second clearly confused by Bella's actions. Rose was the first to move sending me a blurry smile as she stood up and grabbed her coat. Emmett got up and helped her get cozy before I followed them to the door.

I gave them a polite goodbye and Rose turned to me. "She's not going to forgive us is she?"

"It's not my place to answer that question." I answered truthfully. "Drive safely."

I closed the door softly before they could say anything else and grabbed the highchair before heading into the kitchen. Bella had Lucas sitting on the counter holding a potato in his hands while she pealed another one.

"I hope your in the mood for potato soup. I've been thinking about it all day." she turned to me and smiled widely.

"I'm up for anything your in the mood to cook." I shrugged.

"Well take Lucas upstairs and change him, it will be done shortly." she gestured to Lucas, who was gnawing on the potato he had been holding.

I grabbed the stinky boy and walked us out of the room turning around to find her still smiling as she pealed the potatoes.

Later that night we cuddled on the bed going over our wedding plans.

"So far we've got my mother, father, brother and Alice. My grandparents, my aunt and uncle on my moms side and their two daughters. Ben and Angela as well." I read off my invitation list. We had talked about it and decided to keep it a low key intimate affair.

"Oh I forgot about them." Bella frowned her brow furrowing. "I have my friends from Phoenix that I still talk to Jessica and her husband Stanley. Deputy Sam and his wife Emily and their two kids Leah and Jake. Leah can be the flower girl, she's about four or five so she'll like it. That's it."

"What about-" I started to ask but Bella cut me off.

"Our wedding is for close friends and family. Jessica has been one of my friends since I was very young. Sam and Emily were very close to my dad, he's practically my uncle." Bella answered. "So no."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Edward." Bella threw her folder off the bed and climbed into my lap. "I want to marry you and complete our family. I'll be opening a whole new chapter in my life and maybe that means it's time to close another chapter. I'm not going to shut them out completely but they have their own stuff to worry about. They can be my acquaintances. I have my family with you and Lucas and your family. It's time to move on."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

***holds hands over face in protective manner* if your going to beat me up please not the face it's my money maker ;)**

**I hope everyone liked it.. next chapter is obviously the wedding and then the epilogue.. **

**But I have another story a little short one entirely prewritten and everything ready for upload so you will not be without something to read by me ;) I'll put a preview in the epi sooo yeah **

**You know what to do **

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	26. Bella SwanAlmostCullen

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**HERE WE ARE! I'm so sorry this took me so long to update I've been out of FF world for a long while ;)... and then I lost the chapter in cyber space and V couldn't find the edited one so I had to get Caitlin to edit for me because she's awesome!**

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

**Bella Swan-almost-Cullen POV**

"Momma pretty?" Lucas asked, sitting in the corner of the room in his tiny little tux like a good boy.

"Yes, Momma is very pretty. Beautiful," Alice annunciation for him, but he went back to playing with his shoes. "If she'd let me talk her into the pair of pumps I bought her three months ago she'd be even more pretty."

"Alice, I already told you that if I had someone to walk me down the aisle-" She tried to cut me off, but I continued. "Let me speak. If I had someone to walk me down the aisle that wasn't two and a half feet tall, I would wear your death traps. Let me wear the shoes I chose and stop ragging on me."

"Alright. Sorry. I just want you to look perfect. Not that you don't already look perfect. I mean Edward's going to choke on his tongue

when he sees you in this." She ran her hand down the side of my body, across the lacy undergarments. "The dress is going to make him either bawl like a baby or have a stroke."

"You think so?" I bit my bottom lip.

"Do we really have to go over this again Insecurella?" she giggled, grabbing my boobs and fixing them correctly in the corset like frock I was wearing. I was far beyond uncomfortable with her hands on my body, but knew better than to fight her.

Edward and I had been going over the different choices we had come up with for our honeymoon a couple of months before and came across the perfect inn in northern California smack dab in the middle of wine country. He was showing me the different pictures of the establishment and just as we took in the beautifully decorated rooms, the camera panned over the bedroom. It was then that it hit me. We were looking for places to spend our first days as a married couple. We were looking at the possible room where we would be closer than ever, emotionally and physically for the first time. It was the first time that I had even thought about that aspect of the honeymoon and the first time I started to get cold feet.

I ended up in the downstairs bathroom hyperventilating and calling Alice. She talked me down from my hysteria and offered to coach me as much as she could the following day. She talked about blow jobs, hand jobs, sex on the bed, sex in the shower, sex on the beach, in the car, standing up, sitting down, backwards - you name it. By the time I left her house that day I was permanently red and sporting a goody bag that I rushed upstairs and hid in my old bedroom's closet, high up beside the Christmas wrapping paper we had left over. Alice turned into my confidant; any time I felt insecure I would turn to her and she would help me out. I was brought out of my thoughts by her pulling a curl rather roughly.

"No, we don't need to talk about it. I am not being insecure; just nervous," I breathed. "It feels like a billion butterflies are battering around in my stomach fighting for a way out."

"Well, now is not the time to throw up because I might be good with makeup, but I'm no miracle worker. Edward is waiting for you at the end of that aisle." Alice kissed my cheek. "The Cullen men are wonderful, more so than you can ever imagine. Just remember that."

"Ma!" Lucas squealed as he fell off the chair he'd been sitting on. He giggled before standing up and tottering over to us.

"Hey baby boy." I leaned down to pick him up, but Alice tsked me, tapping the delicate watch on her wrist.

"No time, Bella. We need to get you into your dress."

"Alice, I will always have time," I sighed, bringing Lucas against my chest and inhaling his baby scent. Our cuddling only lasted a minute or two because of Alice's impatience and the fact that Carlisle came to make sure I was still coming and to take Lucas to Edward for pictures.

I stepped into my dress, a simple floor length strapless gown, whiter than snow with a deep greenish black colored sash tied around my waist that flowed down the back of the dress. Much to Alice's chagrin, I slipped into my glittery white ballet flats. I decided to forgo the veil, partially because they freaked Lucas out when I tried one on at the boutique. Once Alice dusted me with some product that would keep me from getting shiny if I started to get weepy, she went out to get the photographer and Lucas. I was a little more than surprised to see Angela Cheney, Ben's wife, follow Alice and Lucas into the room, a fancy camera hanging around her neck.

"Angela?" I questioned, hugging her as much as I could around the electronic.

"Edward called me and asked me to take the pictures. Seeing as some of them are going into the magazine, I figured you'd want

someone that's going to make you look good from all angles," she shrugged, pinching Lucas's cheek. "And he's incredibly photogenic."

The next thirty minutes were spent posing for the camera and goofing off with Lucas. He liked the camera so much that when Angela tried to get him to look up at me for candid shots, he would keep turning his head towards her and the big shiny thing.

A knock on the door brought our fun to an end. Jasper came to collect Alice while Angela followed me and Luke out to the backyard. The people we had hired to come set up the marquee made it so that it was pretty much closed off from the house and reception area. No one could see Lucas, Angela and I and we couldn't see them. Angela kept snapping picture after picture as I sat Lucas on his feet and prepared us. He had done wonderfully during the rehearsal the night before so I prayed that he would be alright today.

We watched Leah, Sam and Emily's daughter, float down the aisle, tossing the flowers out of her basket onto poor unsuspecting guests. As soon as the wedding march began, Angela gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder and a quiet 'go get em girl' before we entered the tent. Our guests stood on either side of the aisle, turning to look at Lucas and I as we walked slowly towards the front. I caught a glimpse of Edward, tuxedo clad with a beautiful smile on his face, before Lucas realized that the tent was a lot more crowded than it was the night before. He immediately shied behind me, trying to get under the skirt of my dress, earning chuckles from the crowd.

"Momma!" he cried, burrowing further into the fabric and hugging my knees, bringing us to an abrupt stop. I turned around and picked him up carrying him the rest of the way down the aisle until we were next to Edward. Alice came up and took him from my arms, offering him a piece of candy as a bribe and he happily went to sit with her and Jasper. I watched my baby sit down in the front row before turning to Edward, finally able to get a good look at him and appreciate the man that waited for me at the end of the aisle. His hair was messy, a compromise that we came up with when he insisted that I wear my hair down and natural. I always liked his hair first thing in the morning and at this moment it was perfect. His dark rimmed glasses hung on his nose giving off the inner geek that I loved, his dark green eyes shimmering as he stared at me with love. I reached out at the same time he did and took both of his hands in mine.

The ceremony passed quickly, Edward and I repeated vows administered by the minister and exchanged rings, simple bands that matched my simple engagement ring. We were announced as man and wife and shared a rather heated and passionate first kiss. Pulling away, I gasped for air through the tears pouring down my face and smiled. "We did it."

"You look breathtaking," Edward whispered before leading me down the aisle and off to the right for the reception area with Lucas hot on our tails.

"Momma pretty," he cooed as he finally caught up with us. He turned to Edward with a wanting look and I was surprised to see Edward pull out a pack of mini M&Ms and pop a couple in Lucas's waiting mouth.

"What's that about?" I asked, shying away from the toddler with chocolate.

"Oh, nothing. I wanted him to tell you were pretty, so I started training him last night. Every time he says 'momma's pretty', I would give him some chocolate," Edward replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Edward Cullen, he's not a monkey," I scolded.

"Isabella Cullen, I would never give a monkey chocolate," Edward chuckled, hugging me to his side. "Hmm, what do you say we sit

down and enjoy a nice dinner and some dancing before I whisk you away, Mrs. Cullen?"

His words caused shivers to run down my back. "Sounds perfect Mr. Cullen," I sighed happily. "But you better get the chocolate off of Lucas before he ruins my dress."

Alice helped me get situated at the head table while Edward took Lucas inside to get him cleaned up. "Oh, you two were so beautiful, Bella. Seriously, I'm so glad we have Angela here snapping pictures. I'm sure she got some wonderful shots," she squealed, pulling the bottom of my dress up so that I could sit on my chair comfortably. "Seriously, it went absolutely flawlessly."

"I know Alice. I was there. Thank you for helping me," I choked out, tears sprang to my eyes. "I couldn't have asked for someone better to spend the morning with even if you did torture me."

"Anytime Bella. We're family, always have been. This just makes it permanent." She hugged me tightly. "And thank you so much for having the buffet. I don't think Jasper could handle a meatless meal and I know I can't handle a whiny Jasper."

"Don't mention it," I laughed, wiping tears from my eyes before they could fall.

"What's so funny?" Edward asked, sitting next to me with Lucas on his lap. His head was starting to droop and I could tell that he was ready for a nap despite the excitement. I held my arms out for him and Edward obliged as Esme and Carlisle began passing out flutes of champagne and the caterers began opening their different containers.

Toasts were made, tears were shed and Edward and I shared our first dance as man and wife. I then danced with Carlisle, Jasper, Grandpa Masen and then my baby boy. The latter was my favorite because even though he was fighting sleep, he kept murmuring 'luboo' and 'momma pretty'. I held him and swayed to a few songs because I knew that Edward and I would be leaving soon and I was going to miss him desperately.

"Can I cut in?" Edward asked, tapping my shoulder. "He's asleep."

I adjusted the baby on my shoulder as Edward wrapped his arms around the two of us. Together we danced around the small polished dance floor with our baby in between us, relishing in the contact. Edward's hands played with the curls hanging down my shoulders, the fabric at the top of my dress and the crook where my neck met my shoulders, driving me absolutely crazy. Just as the last song started coming to an end, he leaned down gently so as not to squish Lucas and captured my lips with his. Before the kiss could become to heated, Angela was right by our side snapping picture after picture.

"We just found our cover," she beamed, looking through the pictures before looking up apologetically. "Sorry, continue."

"We better get going, Mrs. Cullen," Edward whispered, his voice hoarse.

"Are you ever going to call me Bella or baby again?" I laughed, pecking him twice on the lips.

"Nope," he smirked. "Hand me the boy and go find Alice." I squeezed Lucas a little hard, earning a small squeak before passing him over to Edward. I was going to miss him even if we were only going to be gone for a week. Alice was by my side almost immediately.

"Come on, let's get you changed." She dragged me up the stairs and into mine and Edward's bedroom. A box was already laying on the bed so that she could go and get my dress professionally cleaned and preserved while we were gone. I let her unzip me and help my vibrating body into my traveling outfit. Keeping up with the blushing virgin bride, Alice forced me into buying a white dress. It was knee length with lace covering the bottom half and a rather subtle neckline. I was happy to be able to reuse my flats and slipped back into them before pinning my hair up in a banana clip for the drive.

"You have the bag that I gave you?" Alice asked, sitting on the bed with her hands in her lap and a coy smile on her face.

"Erm... I don't think I'm going to bring that," I blushed.

"Why the hell not? Seriously, you're going to get to your room tonight and do it, get all the awkwardness out and then regret not bringing it." She stood up. "Where is it?"

"Erm... in the top of the closet across the hall," I murmured. "But Alice, I really don't want to." My words were wasted and she was out of the door before I could stop her. I sat on the bed just waiting for her to return and she didn't disappoint.

"Where's your purse? There's no way I can get this into the suitcase without anyone noticing. I'll just have to give you the basics." She poured the bag's contents out and started going over the items. "You'll definitely want the warming massage oils, maybe to get the awkward part over with. I mean you two haven't seen each other naked yet, so a massage could break the ice."

"True," I nodded, holding my bag open so that she could toss the small bottles inside.

"And then the lube. Trust me you might need that." She tossed another bottle into my bag. "And now for the edible body paint a-"

"Don't even fucking think about it, bitch," I snapped, shutting my bag and holding it to my chest. "Just stop it, Alice. You're making me incredibly nervous."

"Aw, I'm sorry, Bella," Alice pouted, pulling me into a hug. "I guess I just wish that Jasper had been my first and that we waited until we were married. Don't worry, Bella. It will be perfect."

"Thanks, Alice." I kissed her cheek.

"Knock knock," Esme said, walking into the room. "I just wanted to see my new daughter-in-law before you take off."

"I'm glad you're here; I didn't really have time after the ceremony," I said, hugging her tightly as emotions I didn't prepare for came to the surface. For the first time in a long time, I thought of my mom and dad and the fact that they weren't here on my wedding day. Tears sprang to my eyes and I clung to her.

"Oh dear, don't worry. I know you were busy. I've never seen Edward look so happy in my life." She patted my back, trying to sooth me.

"I'm just emotional. I miss my parents and I wish they were here," I cried.

"Oh honey, but they are. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there." She pulled away and straightened my hair.

"Calm down so that we can send you off without my son freaking out thinking that we did something to make you cry." I took a few minutes to dry my eyes and calm down allowing Alice to administer some eye drops and redo my make up. "Alright. I'm ready."

"There it is. I've been waiting to see that smile since I came up here," Esme laughed, hugging me again. "I want you two to be careful, drive safely and don't forget to call and check in."

"Trust me we won't. I'm going to miss Lucas so much."

"You're only going to be gone for a week, Bella," Alice sighed. "He'll be fine. I promise not to take him to get his ear pierced and his first tattoo before you get back."

"And that is why he's staying with Carlisle and I for the week," Esme assured me.

"The pixie won't be left alone with him so don't worry," Alice huffed and stalked out of the room, so we decided to follow her and found a few of the guests had waited to see Edward and I off. He was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. He had already changed into a pair of dark wash jeans and a white V-neck shirt, complete with a pair of his favorite trainers.

"Hi," I whispered shyly, my hands wringing the edge of my purse in excitement.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked, grabbing one of my wrists.

"Yep. You?"

"More than anything."

Our family and small group of friends showered us with rice as we made our way out to Edward's Volvo. Jasper had just finished fastening cans and a just married sign to the bumper that Edward promised me he would remove as soon as we were out of sight as he helped me into the passenger seat. I waved good bye until we turned a corner and the view of the house was blocked by trees.

"So Mrs. Cullen." Edward started as we turned onto the highway.

"So?"

"Are you ready for your honeymoon?"

"Yep, it couldn't come fast enough." I reached over and grabbed his hand and held it there the entire drive to California.

***sniffs* I'm going to be sad to see this one go. My plate is full with work and writing the stories I'd already started before I decided to do a possible sequel. This is the last official chapter of Bella the Babysitter but there will be an epilogue and I've already set it up so that even if I'm bombarded with work I can just use my ipod to update :)**

**can't have an update not end with the review peen ;)**

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	27. Epilogue and long ass author note :P

**Disclaimer: I don't own it**

**This is it ladies. The final chapter of Bella the Babysitter. :( the sequel is going to happen later than I hoped because I've been really busy with work. I didn't want to put off completing this when I realized I've had it going for almost eight months and it's not even that long. V told me to update on Friday cause it's my 22nd birthday but I didn't want to be sad. This ending is bittersweet though and I will revisit our happy family once my life has settled down. Thanks to everyone that's ever stumbled upon this story or any of my others, anyone whose ever left a review or PM'ed me with some constructive criticism.**

**This chapter is dedicated to V, my best friend/sudotwin/diary who stayed up late at night listening to me war over the different directions this story could go in, who convinced me to try to write a story not for FF purposes even though I'm too chicken and for offering to order a birthday cake and have it delivered to me because my family two days were hell let's never fight again kay? *gives hug*  
**

**To Caitlin whose joined my FF family and fits right into my world of music, writers block and all around goofy things we text to each other during the day (BTW haven't heard from you all day 'where you be at hoe?' J/K I appreciate you times infinity and I appreciate everything you deal with i.e. random emails with personal issues, and worse of all the grammar mistakes I make even in text messages ;)**

**And last but not least this chapter is dedicated to anyone whose ever fallen in love with their superior, freaked the fuck out in front of airport security, gotten the shit beat out of them during a black Friday shopping trip, been proposed to in a cheesy way and actually having that love last. It's also dedicated to any one that's ever lost a best friend just because the both of you have grown up or has ever filled the shoes of a parental unit for a child that isn't yours. And especially to those who have been peed on during an innocent diaper change ;) **

**I love each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart and now I'm realizing why I don't update when I'm pmsing because I'm being far to dramatic and bawling my eyes out right now. **

**Enjoy the chapter, you deserved it.  
**

**XOXO x's infinity Ashley  
**

**Bella the Babysitter**

**Epilogue**

**Bella Swan POV**

I was woken up by velvety soft touches across my ribs. Glancing over at the clock I realized that it was three thirty in the morning and smiled.

"Really?" I asked clearing the sleep out of my throat. "Again?"

"It's your fault. I can't get enough of you." my husband whispered, his hands going straight for my breasts under the sheer nightshirt I had thrown on after our last round of love making. "I'm insatiable."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." I groaned as he cupped my breasts, rubbing the ends of my pebbled nipples with his talented thumbs. "Must have been while you were kissing me."

"I know you did not just quote Meatloaf while I'm trying to seduce you." Edward laughed trying to pull away but I grabbed his hands and kept them where they were.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." I giggled. "Please resume to the seducification of your wife."

"Seducification? Where the fuck did you come up with that?" he chuckled pinching my right nipple roughly earning a lust filled yelp from me.

"It's just a Bella Cullen original, write that down." I tried to turn around so that I could kiss him but he wouldn't let me.

Instead I gasped as his lips and mouth attacked the crook of my neck sucking and nipping me as his hands continued to torture my boobs. I started to rock back into him loving the feeling of his erection against me, knowing that I was the one to cause his arousal made me feel like super woman.

"Be patient love."

"Oh just get it over with all ready." I groaned trying to pry his hand from my innocent, well not so innocent nipple and down to where I wanted him most, where I was absolutely sopping and throbbing for him.

"Wow what a way with words."

"Eh, I try. Please?" I begged reaching behind me and trying to get a grip on him but he was entirely evasive. "Let me touch you. It's only fair."

"Who said I was going to be fair baby?" he chuckled darkly grabbing my shoulders and turning me so that I was flat on my back.

As soon as he moved to roll on top of me, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled roughly at the baby fine hair. He groaned and practically ripped my nightgown from my body leaving the both of us completely naked. I spread my legs a little wider trying to get him where I wanted him but he ignored my needs and wants and attacked the tops of my breasts with his mouth.

Edward Cullen was definitely a boob man ladies and gentlemen, but I'm pretty sure I didn't need to point that out.

His tongue swirled around my flesh working me into frenzy before he even touched me where I ached for him the most. Before I could reach my peak he released my skin with a small pop.

"You better not have given me another hicky Edward Cullen." I gasped feeling his hardness on my thigh as he shifted.

"Hmm, and so what if I did?"

"You'll pay. And you'll have to answer the unwanted questions I'm sure to be asked."

"What if I make it worth your wild?" he asked rubbing his nose against mine as he adjusted his erection in between my wet folds.

"Then we might be able to come to an agreement. It won't be easy though so you might want to get to it." I shifted in an effort to take him in but he decided to tease me, rubbing against my clit once, twice before pressing just inside of me.

"Is that a challenge?" he asked, his voice laced with lust.

"God Edward please just fuck me already." he thrust into me quick and hard causing the both of us to moan rather loudly our sounds reverberating from the walls.

"You asked for it Mrs. Cullen." He groaned into my neck as he started pushing in and out of me without abandon. I held onto him while he worked us towards our releases moving my hips as best as I could despite the fact that he was practically smothering me. I couldn't' complain though, he knew I loved the feeling of him on top of me, the feeling of our skin pressed together so tightly that we almost became one.

"Oh god Edward. I'm so close." I moaned after only a few minutes.

"Just a little bit longer baby." he grunted picking up the pace and wrapping his arms around my back to pull me closer to him. "Almost there."

"No, oh I'm coming." I moaned as I practically convulsed under him my body seizing tightly as I felt him tense above me.

"Oh Bella." He grunted riding out his release.

We collapsed back onto the bed together gasping for air and clinging to each other despite the fact that we were sticky with sweat and other fluids. He rubbed my ribs soothingly where he had squeezed a little too tight in our excitement.

"Mama." I heard a soft murmur over the baby monitor and sighed.

"Well you finished just in time Mr. Cullen."

"Ugh it's your turn."

"Don't even start. I endured hours and hours of labor not to mention th-"

"Don't you even start. That doesn't count because it's not like it's by choice. Men can't have babies." Edward scoffed as the whimpering grew louder. "Besides she's eleven months, you can't play that shit forever."

"Yes I can. Until she moves out. Go get her please. I'll go make her a bottle." I yawned. "It's your fault you wore me out."

"Hmm, true." Edward wagged his eyebrows as he pulled on a pair of boxer briefs before walking out of the room.

It's hard to believe that we had been married for little over five years. Time flies when you're having fun that's for sure. Our lives weren't prefect but they weren't miserable either. We had our share of fights and drama but we also had our cute moments and an undeniable love.

I never went on birth control before our honey moon and as much as we hoped to come home the week after with an extra person aboard, making a baby was harder than expected. It's weird to think that some people accidentally get pregnant on the first shot but when Edward and I were trying, it took more than two years to succeed at making Lucas an older brother.

Bailey Renee was born the day before my first baby started second grade and he was not happy. The nurse had just helped me into the bathroom when Edward brought Lucas in to take a look at the new family member and for some reason out of pure genius decided to mention that they had to hurry to get to school on time. Lucas got emotional and started to cry causing his little sister to cry as well. We managed to calm him down and he called me the second he got out of school on his dad's phone informing me that his class had made Bailey a happy birthday card during craft time.

I made quick work preparing a bottle spurred on by the screams I could hear across the hall knowing that Bailey was a dramatic baby. If we were a couple of minutes late with a feeding she screamed as if we hadn't fed her in day. I rushed across the hall and popped the bottle into her mouth laughing at the impatient sigh and grunt she emitted as she fed.

"It's like magic." Edward whispered in awe.

"Yeah, you ready for another?" I asked covering the bottom half of Bailey's body and kissing her forehead before exiting the room and heading over to check and make sure Lucas hadn't woken up.

"Huh?" Edward asked yawning widely.

"We agreed that we wanted three remember?" I asked turning Lucas's TV off and his radio on.

He liked to sleep with sound, something he started after Bailey was born. I figured it was because he couldn't stand when the baby cried but Lucas just assured me that he liked to go to sleep and wake up to music.

"Yeah. I'm still up for it." Edward whispered picking up a few stray toys so that Luke wouldn't trip in the morning on his way to the bathroom.

"Up for what?" I asked pulling him into our bedroom.

"For the baby making process. I'm ready when you are." he pulled me into his arms but started yawning again. "Well, not tonight but after I've had a good night's sleep I'll be ready."

"There's nothing to get ready for." I said reaching into my nightstand and pulling out the black and white picture. I handed it to Edward figuring he'd get the hint but he just sat there with a dumb look on his face.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I was hoping that it was a seamonkey." I waved nonchalantly. "But the doctor said it was a baby. We can find out the sex in a couple of months if we want. I was thinking that we should get a second opinion after that just to make sure. I'd hate to have to raise a little boy named Victoria."

Bailey's cord had played a nasty little trick on us and when she was born both Edward and I were surprised when the doctor announced 'It's a girl'. She wore a pink onesie that Esme found in the gift shop at the hospital because our three day stay was mostly filled with shock that we had a little girl instead of the baby boy we'd prepared for.

Edward blinked a few times.

"You're pregnant?"

"Yep. Two months. Are you still up for it?" I smiled.

Edward came at me pulling me into his arms roughly and swinging me around. I laughed until I noticed that he was crying.

"Edward?" I ran my hand over his cheek.

"I'm just happy. You make me so happy." he kissed my cheek.

"Likewise daddy. Now let's go to bed, the baby will be up in a couple of hours and thanks to my horny husband I haven't had any sleep tonight." I joked laying down and burrowing into the pillows. Edward got under the covers and pulled me close to him and rubbed my stomach.

"I can't believe there's a baby in there."

"Believe it."

**BTB~BTB**

The following morning I was awoken by the familiar screams from the infant across the hall. Before I could untangle myself from Edward I heard the door across the hall open and shut and the small pitter patter of little feet before the nursery door opened and then shut.

"_Alright little girl." Lucas cooed sleepily. "You need to take a major chill pill. Momma and daddy will be awake in a little bit."_

I could hear Bailey start to calm down but then start crying again. Lucas sighed heavily and I heard something creak and shot out of the bed and across the hall.

"Lucas Edward you better not even think about taking her out of the crib by yourself." I scolded as I swung the door open.

Lucas held his hands up in shock and leaned against the lowered crib rack nonchalantly.

"Who me? No I'd never try to take Bailey out of her crib without an adult." he smiled. "Alright so I was gonna help you change her diaper momma. I'm sorry."

"It's alright baby." I leaned down and kissed his nose ruffling his wild fire red hair. "Let me get her on the changing table and you can help me still."

We made quick work to get Princess Bailey (the nickname was given once Lucas realized how demanding his little sister was) changed and downstairs. Lucas begged and pleaded to be allowed to feed his little sister her banana mush and cereal so I set them up at the table before starting the coffee and preheating the oven for the muffins I planned to make for breakfast. I had just pulled out the ingredients when I felt a warm arm slip around my waist.

"How are my babies this morning?" Edward asked rubbing my stomach with the pad of his thumb.

"We are fine. Lucas tried to get Bailey out of the crib by himself again, but I got there in time." I turned around and kissed his lips. "How are you?"

"Elated, excited, overjoyed." he finished each word with a kiss. "When are you planning on meeting the girls today?"

"As soon as I finish breakfast, shower and get ready. What are the three of you going to do while I'm gone?"

"Oh I dunno, I thought about pulling out my old BB gun and teaching Lucas how to shoot. Then I was going to pull out my old chemistry set and teach them how to make meth." Edward shrugged earning a harsh slap to the chest. "I'm kidding, we'll probably go out back and play. I have to attach Bailey's swing to the swing set today so I'll be busy doing that while Lucas entertains her."

"Make sure Lucas doesn't let Sushi get too close to Bailey. She might be declawed but she can still bite." I commented making quick work of the muffin mix.

Sushi was a small fat ball of fluff. Lucas and I had been walking down the strip mall one afternoon when we happened upon an old woman with a cardboard box full of mewing little flea bags. I said no, Lucas gave me his signature puppy dog eyes. I said absolutely not, Lucas hugged himself around my legs and started to cry. I said I'd talk to his father about it and Lucas walked over to the box and pulled out the ugliest little cat I'd ever seen in my life and placed her into my hands. We ended up blowing entirely too much money at a pet store and Edward teased me mercilessly for weeks about how I gave in.

"Of course Bella." Edward chuckled. "Go shower so you can get out of here, your sort of annoying when you have things to do."

"Fine." I huffed playfully and set the muffins in the oven before rushing upstairs.

Thirty minutes later I was sitting in the middle of a small café waiting for the girls to arrive.

"Auntie Bewa." could be heard as soon as the door opened. I braced myself for Lacey knowing that when she was excited she could knock me out of my damn chair.

"Hi Lacey-poo how are we doing today?" I asked hugging her tightly.

"I's good. Momma said I get hot cocoa." she beamed.

"Really?"

"Really." Alice huffed sitting across from me. "As if she needs any more sugar in her hyperactive system."

"Then why'd you give in?" I smirked as Lacey settled her small body in my lap.

"Because she's just so adorable." Alice laughed winking at her five year old.

After arriving back from the honeymoon I found out that when Alice was eighteen she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It made sense to things I had noticed before. Alice couldn't go into hospitals and had to take a giant handful of pills everyday because she had a very low immune system and to regulate her hormones. The cancer almost killed her and she even broke up with Jasper because she didn't want him to be around when she got sicker. The night she shaved her head because she didn't want to have to go through the heartbreak when she went through her chemo, Jasper climbed up to her bedroom and promised her that he would be by her side no matter what. When the doctors decided that a hysterectomy was in order, Jasper was the last thing she saw before she went under anesthesia and the first thing she saw when she woke up.

They were married down at the local court house the day after she was released from the hospital.

About a year ago she called me absolutely hysterical and I had no choice but to climb my pregnant ass into my truck and drive over to her house to find her freaking out on the front porch holding a giant envelope to her chest. I hadn't known that she and Jasper had applied for adoption so to say I was surprised when she shoved the paper in my hands informing them that they were being given the five year old. Two and a half weeks later, we had a welcoming party for Lacey Joy Whitlock. She had spent her entire life in an orphanage and took to Jasper and Alice immediately, calling them mommy and daddy. She and Lucas were best friends from the first day they met.

Lacy was a dark haired beauty, she had olive toned skin from her Indian roots and wide almond shaped brown eyes. She had recently lost all four of her front teeth so she talked with the cutest little lisp and was unable to say her R's and L's correctly.

"Sorry we're late." I heard before the chair next to me slid out and Rose plopped herself down careful not to tussle the newborn attached to her chest with a sling. "Avery wouldn't let me put him down for a nap. Something about almost six year olds don't need naps. Emmett still has a cold so I wanted Avery to go down before I left so that he could sleep a little bit. Dillon went down like that though, naturally." she snapped her fingers.

"It's fine, Alice and Lacey just got here." I hugged her from the side.

It took me a long time to call Rose and she allowed me to have the time I needed. I didn't meet the twins until they were three months old and as much as I regret not being there for her and Emmett; we all realized that the separation was actually good for us. We weren't as close as we were before I moved out of the apartment to work for Edward, but that was okay with us. Little Emma Lynn started to coo from her cocoon. As much as a surprise Avery and Dillon had been for Emmett and Rose, Emma Lynn was planned and prepared for and the light of the big bear's eye.

"So did you tell Edward?" Rose asked taking the baby from her chest and placing a bottle into her mouth.

"Tell Edward what?" Alice asked as she sat back down with a tray of drinks.

I laughed as she placed three ice cubes into Lacey's hot chocolate before handing it to her. She then added two artificial sweeteners into her and Rose's coffees before opening a plastic spoon and placing it in my cappuccino and sliding it over towards me so that I could eat the froth.

"About the baby." I smiled as Lacey bit into her giant muffin and groaned.

"You're pregnant?" Alice squealed jumping out of her chair and rushing over to me. "Oh I'm so happy for you."

"Alice sit you A-S-S down." Rose scolded. "Everyone is staring."

"Sorry." Alice pulled away before turning to the nosey people. "I'm sorry for causing a scene. I just found out I'm going to be an aunt again. Eeep."

No one cared what she was talking about as they turned back to what they were doing before she started squealing and that caused me to laugh.

"Some people are so rude." Alice muttered sitting back in her chair. "So how come you didn't tell me?"

I could see the question in her eye. Why did Rose find out before her? Alice and I were a lot closer and not just through marriage.

"Because I was at the doctor's office getting my check up when Bella found out. We ran into each other as we were leaving and I could tell from the look on her face." Rose assured Alice obviously feeling the tension.

"Oh."

We finished our coffees and made plans to meet up the following week same time same place. I ran by the grocery store to get all of the things I needed for Lucas's party at school. Forty five cupcakes and yours truly had to bake and decorate each and every one of them.

I was weighed down with bags as I walked through the front door and was more than surprised to find the house completely silent. After dropping off all of the groceries in the kitchen and putting up the perishables I went out back to find my family napping under the big tree. Edward was leaning back against the trunk and Lucas was cuddled up to his side, little Bailey was curled up in Edward's lap. I ran back inside and got my camera before snapping a couple of shots of my family.

I decided that the cupcakes could wait an hour or two and kicked my shoes off before cuddling up to Edward's vacant side.

"Hmm," he stirred.

"Hey I'm back." I kissed his jaw.

"Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, it's nice to get out and spend some time with the two of them every once and a while. I missed you guys though." I yawned burrowing my face into his chest. We fell asleep under the tree and woke up an hour later to the shrill cry of the starving baby.

Lucas looked up at me with a smirk on his face despite the fact that he was woken up during his nap.

"Hi momma."

"Hi baby."

"I'm not a baby." He grumbled.

"On the contrary you will always be my baby. Even when your old and married and have kids of your own." I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. "So get used to it and wipe that scowl off your face."

"Do I get to open a present tonight?" he asked giving me a sweet look.

"No, your birthday isn't until tomorrow."

"But it's like Christmas. It's my birthday eve." he pulled out the puppy dog eyes and I braced myself.

"Nice try mister." I covered his face with my hand. "You get to help me bake the cupcakes for your class tonight though. And if you're lucky, I'll let you lick the bowl."

"Really?" He beamed running toward the house before turning back. "You're the best momma."

Tears sprang to my eyes and Edward wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "He's right. You are the best momma. The best momma, the best wife, the best Bella. I love you."

"I love you too." I chocked out.

"And I love you both but come on we've got loads of cupcakes to bake." Lucas demanded from the porch.

Later that night I was sitting in front of Edward's lap top proofreading his latest article before he sent it off. I had started doing it for him once or twice and now it was just a habit. Just like the first time I'd pre-read it for him, there was a small notation at the bottom of the article for me.

_Bella Cullen, I love you more than words can describe. You're the mother of my children and the love of my life and I thank god each and every day that you showed up on my doorstep when I needed you the most. Like I said earlier, you're the best person, the best momma, wife, Bella and babysitter. Now dry the tears I know are pouring down your perfect cheeks and come downstairs and spend some time with me beautiful. Love, your husband._

Grabbing a couple of tissues I did as instructed before shutting the office light off and heading downstairs to find my boss, my partner and my reason for living.

**I hope everyone liked it. I have plans for the sequel that include the entire family, their friends and even little Sushi ;) Keep an eye out for me, I have another story prewritten entirely I just want to wait a bit before uploading it.. it needs to be tweeked and other important things.. like a Title, and summary lol **

**Be safe you guys;) Peace, love and robots**

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	28. Chapter 28

**For those of you that don't have me on your alert's I've gotten a Twitter to keep up with everything and everyone so come find me (at) PandorasFF**

**I also got a blog because one of my stories was deleted without any warning making me extremely sad and more than a little paranoid. My blog will consist of all of my stories once they are Beta'd as well as a few incomplete projects in hopes that some positivity will give me the oomph I need to complete them **

** pandorasboxisheavy(dot)blogspot(dot)com/**

**I also just got an account at AO3 and will start posting over there as well once I figure out the logistics.**

**My account is under PandorasBoxIsHeavy so come find me over there too :D **

**And last but not least if you haven't checked out my new story Southern Comfort it's already 25 chapters in and on my blog as well**

**See yah soon lovelies **

**XOXO Ashley**

**I will delete this message in a couple of days I just wanted to give everyone a heads up with what's going on**


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